Gor 


BX  7250  .G67  1920 

Gordon,  George  Angier,  1853 

1929. 
Humanism  in  New  England 
eoloav 


Eeb*  (Beorse  31.  (SorUon,  ©.£). 


HUMANISM    IN   NEW   ENGLAND  THEOLOGY. 
ASPECTS  OF  THE    INFINITE  MYSTERY. 
REVELATION  AND  THE   IDEAL. 
RELIGION  AND  MIRACLE. 
THROUGH   MAN  TO  GOD. 
ULTIMATE  CONCEPTIONS  OF  FAITH. 
THE  NEW   EPOCH   FOR  FAITH. 
THE    WITNESS  TO    IMMORTALITY    IN    LITER- 
ATURE.  PHILOSOPHY,   AND   LIFE. 
THE  CHRIST  OF  TO-DAY. 
IMMORTALITY  AND  THE  NEW  THEODICY. 
HOUGHTON   MIFFLIN   COMPANY 
Boston  and  New  York 


HUMANISM  IN 
NEW  ENGLAND  THEOLOGY 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2009  with  funding  from 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


http://www.archive.org/details/humanisminneweOOgord 


HUMANISM 

IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

THEOLOGY 

BYy 
GEORGE  A.  GORDON 

MINISTER  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH  BOSTON 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

The  Riverside  Press  Cambridge 

1920 


COPYRIGHT,  1920,  BY  GEOROS  A.  GORDON 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESSRVBD 


WITH  THE  DEEPEST  RESPECT 

I  INSCRIBE 

THIS  VOLUME  TO  TWO  FRIENDS 

DOCTOR  WILLISTON  WALKER 

AND 

DOCTOR  JOHN  WRIGHT  BUCKHAM 

SCHOLARS  WHO  INHERIT 

VENERATE  AND  LIFT  INTO  UNIVERSAL  RELATIONS 

THE  GREAT  NEW  ENGLAND  TRADITIONS 


NOTE 

The  Essay  here  published  appeared  origi- 
nally in  the  Harvard  Theological  Review, 
April,  1907.  For  permission  to  repubhsh  it 
sincere  thanks  are  extended  to  the  editors 
of  the  Review, 

The  title  has  been  changed  from  ''The 
Collapse  of  the  New  England  Theology,"  to 
"Humanism  in  New  England  Theology," 
because  the  former  title  indicated  only  the 
passing  of  a  historic  system  of  thought, 
while  indicating  not  at  all  the  permanent 
ideas  in  that  system.  For  the  purposes  of 
the  article  it  seemed  best  to  take  the  title 
from  Dr.  Foster's  book,  then  under  review. 
The  new  title  emphasizes  what  the  writer 
conceives  to  be  the  fundamental  principle 
of  every  attempt  to  interpret  the  mystery 
of  the  Infinite.  Fidelity  to  this  principle  at 
its  best  —  the  interpretation  of  the  Eternal 
through  the  ideal  man  —  would  appear  to 


via  Note 

be  the  final  test  of  the  worth  of  every 
scheme  of  thought  in  the  service  of  Chris- 
tian faith. 

In  this  tercentennial  year  of  the  landing 
of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  attention  is  sure  to 
be  drawn  to  the  great  succession  of  New 
England  divines,  and  it  is  hoped  that  this 
little  book  may  assist  in  the  discovery  of 
what  was  of  passing  interest  in  their 
thought,  and  of  that  which  must  abide  so 
long  as  faith  in  the  God  and  Father  of  Jesus 
shall  abide.  A  few  hints  are  given  of  the 
heroic  character  of  these  men,  their  intel- 
lectual strength  and  charm  —  a  subject 
that  deserves  an  independent  treatment. 

Some  slight  additions  have  been  made  to 
the  Essay  as  it  at  first  appeared;  there  are 
also  some  slight  omissions.  In  other  respects 
the  discussion  is  unchanged. 

George  A.  Gordon 

January  2,  1920 


HUMANISM  IN 
NEW  ENGLAND  THEOLOGY 


HUMANISM 

IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

THEOLOGY 


HERE  are  in  general  two  forms  of 
humanism,  the  historical  and  the 
philosophical.  Historical  human- 
ism, imless  otherwise  guarded,  is  under- 
stood to  cover  the  revival  of  interest  in  the 
Greek  and  Roman  classics,  and  the  devo- 
tion to  the  product  of  human  genius  in  lit- 
erature and  in  art  in  Europe  during  the 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries.  To  be 
sure,  this  sense  of  historical  humanism  is 
arbitrary.  Any  view  taken  of  human  nature 
among  any  people  in  any  period  of  time  is  a 
form  of  historical  humanism.  In  this  sense 
of  the  word  we  have,  to  mention  only  lead- 
ing races,  Hebrew,  Greek,  Roman,  patristic, 


2    Eumanism  in  New  England  Theology 
mediaeval,  Puritan,  and  present-day  forms 
of  humanism. 
,      Philosophical   humanism   is    something 
different.  It  is  the  doctrine  which  finds, 
whether  with  or  without  clear  intention,  in 
human  personality  the  key  to  the  character 
of  the  imiverse.  Popular  forms  of  religion 
illustrate  the  three  ways  in  which  this  hu- 
manistic principle  is  applied.  The  worship 
of  the  sun  is  common  in  the  history  of  cer- 
tain peoples.  Here  the  direct  principle  is  the 
interpretation  of  the  Divine  through  Na- 
ture; but  the  indirect  principle  is  humanis- 
tic. The  sun  is  all-seeing,  an  eye  filled  with 
omniscience;  the  human  mind  has  taken 
possession  of  it  and  moulded  it  to  its  own 
uses.  Besides,  when  reflection  arrives,  it  is 
seen  that  Nature  in  any  of  her  great  forms 
is  known  only  as  force,  that  force  is  known 
only  as  will.  In  the  interpretation  of  the 
Divine  through  Nature,  while  the  direct 
principle  is  sub-human,  the  indirect  princi- 
ple is  a  phase  of  human  personaUty.  In  the 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    j 

study  of  Egyptian  monuments  one  is  met 
with  the  most  elaborate  attempt  to  inter- 
pret the  Divine  through  animal  life.  The 
hawk,  the  snake,  the  crocodile  are  a  few  of 
the  great  variety  of  animal  forms  employed 
in  this  interpretation.  Here  the  direct  prin- 
ciple is  again  sub-human,  but  the  indirect  is 
another  phase  of  the  human  personality;  for 
only  through  the  consciousness  of  life  is  man 
able  to  enter  the  vast  region  of  animal  vital- 
ity and  power.  In  polytheism,  pantheism, 
and  theism  the  human  personality  is  used, 
in  one  way  or  another,  as  the  guiding  prin- 
ciple. The  many  gods  of  Greece  or  Rome  are 
a  reflection  of  the  many  human  beings  by 
whom  the  universe  is  construed.  The  abso- 
lute divinity  of  the  whole  and  all  its  parts 
is  but  the  infinite  shadow  of  a  human  life 
supposed  to  be  complete  or  fated  to  be  as  it 
is.  The  one  God  of  the  monotheistic  world 
is  the  image  of  the  one  great  human  soul 
that  is  fit  to  govern  all  other  human  souls. 
Facts,  real  or  apparent,  in  each  case  guide 


4    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

in  the  application  of  the  principle.  Jesus 
and  his  gospel  come  from  the  Eternal,  and 
in  the  name  of  this  the  supreme  soul  and  its 
fullness  of  honor  and  love,  we  turn,  look 
back,  and  see  through  Him  the  Infinite 
Father. 

The  general  conclusion  here  is  that  every 
positive  view  of  the  imiverse  is  attained  on 
the  humanistic  principle;  the  special  con- 
clusion is  that  every  form  of  theism  is  at  the 
same  time  a  form  of  humanism.  Still  fur- 
ther, the  two  great  types  of  theism,  the  In- 
dividual God  and  the  Social  God,  the  Uni- 
tarian Deity  and  the  Trinitarian  Deity,  are 
the  issue  of  two  different  forms  of  the  hu- 
manistic principle.  For  one  type,  the  Uni- 
tarian, the  individual  man  is  the  instru- 
ment of  interpretation;  for  the  other  type, 
the  Trinitarian,  man  the  social  being  is  the 
guide.  The  New  England  theology  sets 
forth  the  Trinitarian  type  of  theism.  It  is 
theological  humanism  of  a  certain  kind. 
The  type  is  bound  to  endure;  the  form  in 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    5 

which  it  lived  is  gone.  A  criticism  of  the 
New  England  theology,  first  upon  more 
obvious  grounds,  and  then  upon  humanistic 
grounds,  is  therefore  in  order.  It  is  here 
undertaken  in  the  interest  of  the  permanent 
type  which  the  writer  believes  that  theology 
set. 

•  What  is  the  New  England  theology?  In  a 
general  way  it  is  the  philosophy  of  the 
Christian  faith  originating  with  Augustine, 
reduced  to  severe  order  and  expounded  with 
energy  and  consistency  by  John  Calvin,  re- 
vived by  Jonathan  Edwards,  and  by  him 
and  his  successors  related  to  the  speculative 
questions  and  religious  conditions  of  a  new 
land  and  a  new  people.  From  first  to  last  it 
consisted  in  five  main  determinations,  the 
old  five  points  of  Calvinism  slightly  rear- 
ranged: the  sovereignty  of  God,  the  deprav- 
ity of  man,  the  atonement  for  sin  made  by 
Jesus  Christ,  the  irresistible  grace  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  the  perseverance  of  be- 
lievers in  Christ.  The  system  began  with  the 


6    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

Divine  sovereignty,  with  the  predestination 
of  all  events,  with  a  world  fallen,  yet  under 
the  purpose  of  God,  and  with  a  scheme  of 
salvation  limited  to  a  certain  predeter- 
mined number,  and  exclusive  of  or  indiffer- 
ent to  the  rest  of  mankind.  Nathaniel  W. 
Taylor  here  speaks  for  the  entire  school.  In 
his  discussion  of  the  doctrine  of  election  he 
remarks:  "The  simple  matter  of  fact  which 
I  would  state,  and  which  constitutes  the  en- 
tire doctrine  of  election,  is  this:  that  God 
has  eternally  proposed  to  renew,  and  sanc- 
tify, and  save  a  part  only  of  mankind/' 
The  perseverance  of  true  believers  must  be 
read  in  the  Hght  of  the  irresistible  grace  of 
the  Holy  Spirit;  this  again  must  be  traced, 
through  the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  back  to  the 
elective  decree  of  the  Most  High,  and  still 
further  this  determination  to  save  only  a 
part  of  mankind  must  be  seen  to  be  one 
phase  of  God's  absolute  sovereignty  in  the 
universe. 
Upon  this  general  framework  of  belief  all 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    7 

the  New  England  theologians  were  agreed. 
For  them  there  were  but  two  systems  of 
theology,  the  Calvinistic  and  the  Arminian, 
and  for  the  latter  they  had,  in  general 
and  in  particular,  something  very  like  con- 
tempt. So  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  search 
their  writings,  no  one  of  these  thinkers  has 
defined  the  science  of  theology.  They  did 
not  conceive  definition  to  be  necessary. 
They  had  absorbed  from  childhood  the  Cal- 
vinistic scheme;  it  took  tremendous,  almost 
exclusive,  hold  of  their  intellect.  When  they 
studied  the  Bible  it  seemed  to  look  into 
their  souls  nearly  from  every  page,  and  the 
history  of  this  sad  world  was  the  conclusive 
witness  to  the  truth  of  its  doctrine  concern- 
ing man.  Jonathan  Edwards,  the  elder  and 
the  younger,  Joseph  Bellamy,  Samuel  Hop- 
kins, Nathanael  Emmons,  Nathaniel  W. 
Taylor,  and  Edwards  A.  Park  —  the  great 
masters  of  the  school  —  were  at  one  here. 
Horace  Bushnell  is  the  pioneer  of  a  new 
movement,  and  therefore  does  not  in  this 


8    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

connection  concern  us.  Samuel  Harris  was  a 
deep  thinker  in  theology,  and  an  eminent 
teacher;  but  he  too  had  outgrown  the  old 
New  England  categories.  Professor  Park 
was  the  last  of  the  New  England  theologi- 
ans. These  thinkers  without  exception  held 
to  the  sovereignty  of  God,  whether  con- 
strued as  including  or  as  not  including  the 
fall;  they  held  to  the  innate  depravity  of 
mankind  —  they  traced  this  universal  con- 
dition of  the  race  to  the  sin  of  the  first  man, 
however  they  may  have  differed  with  older 
thinkers  or  among  themselves  in  the  ac- 
count given  of  the  relation  of  the  individual 
to  Adam;  they  were  agreed  that  without 
atonement  there  is  no  forgiveness  of  sin, 
and  that  this  necessary  atonement  had  been 
made  by  Jesus  Christ;  they  were  united  in 
the  belief  that  the  Holy  Spirit  is  essential  to 
the  conversion  and  regeneration  of  man  — 
that  till  the  Spirit's  influence  descends  upon 
him,  man  is  helpless  in  the  presence  of 
his  moral  obligation,  that  when  the  Divine 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    g 

grace  comes  it  is  irresistible,  and  that  its 
dispensation  is  ruled,  not  by  the  forlorn 
condition  of  a  humanity  lying  in  wicked- 
ness, but  by  the  Divine  decree;  and  they 
were  imanimous  in  their  conviction  that  true 
believers  in  Jesus  Christ  will  persevere  to 
the  end  and  be  saved  with  an  everlasting 
salvation.  Upon  this  last  point  great  em- 
phasis was  placed.  It  represented  the  final 
issue  of  the  aboriginal  sovereign  decree;  it 
was  held  with  a  vigor  answering  to  the  cer- 
tainty of  that  decree;  and  hence  any  hesita- 
tion here  was  regarded  as  a  reflection  upon 
the  Supreme  honor  and  power.  Oliver 
Cromwell,  in  his  question,  *Does  once  a 
Christian  mean  always  a  Christian? '  repre- 
sents the  seriousness  of  the  entire  New  Eng- 
land school  upon  this  subject.  A  certain 
minister  once  complained  to  President 
Sparks,  of  Harvard,  that  his  church  was 
greatly  distressed  over  the  perseverance  of 
the  saints;  to  whom  President  Sparks  re- 
plied in  the  modern  spirit,  but  at  the  same 


10    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

time  failing  in  insight  into  the  Puritan  char- 
acter, ^Our  trouble  here  is  with  the  perse- 
verance of  the  sinners/  It  is  a  sign  of  the 
distance  we  have  come  that  the  famous  re- 
mark of  Dr.  Williams,  of  Providence,  upon 
this  subject  is  cherished  as  a  supreme  ex- 
ample of  humor  in  theological  debate.  It 
was,  however,  far  enough  from  this  charac- 
ter in  the  mind  of  Dr.  WilHams.  Meeting 
one  day  a  preacher  of  Arminian  opinions 
and  demanding  of  him  a  proof-text  for  the 
monstrous  belief  that  a  soul  once  converted 
to  God  could  fall  away  and  be  lost  forever, 
and  receiving  in  answer  the  citation  of  the 
parable  of  the  ten  virgins  who  all  went 
forth  to  meet  the  bridegroom,  but  of  whom 
five  fell  away  and  were  lost,  the  contemptu- 
ous rejoinder  of  Dr.  Williams  was,  that  any 
man  who  beheved  a  doctrine  of  Scripture 
on  account  of  what  five  women  said,  and 
five  foolish  women  at  that,  deserved  to  go 
to  perdition. 

In  the  presentation  of  these  five  points 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    ii 

there  were  among  the  New  England  theo 
logians  noble  rivalries  and  generous  differ- 
ences; there  were,  too,  marked  superiorities 
and  inferiorities  in  acuteness  and  vigor,  in 
force  and  felicity  of  exposition,  in  dialectical 
and  apologetic  skill;  but  with  the  single  ex- 
ception of  Edwards,  they  rarely  went  out- 
side the  Calvinistic  plan,  and  without  ex- 
ception that  plan  stood  as  the  final  thought 
upon  man's  origin,  history,  and  destiny. 
Dr.  Foster,^  while  sensitive  to  the  personal 
force  of  Edwards,  is  strangely  wanting,  for 
a  mind  of  his  candor,  in  appreciation  of 
Edwards's  rational  strength.  In  ranking  the 
founder  of  the  school  below  Taylor  and 
Park,  Dr.  Foster  cannot  be  said  to  appreci- 
ate the  solitary  distinction  of  Edwards. 
Taylor  and  Park  are,  after  Edwards,  the 
acutest  thinkers  in  the  school,  but  in  com- 
pass, in  depth,  in  fertiHty  of  rational  de- 
vice, and  above  all,  in  speculative  genius, 
they  are  not  to  be  mentioned  by  the  side  of 
*  The  Collapse  oj  the  New  England  Theology. 


12    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

Edwards.  A  full  examination  of  the  unpub- 
lished writings  of  Edwards  would  show  a 
mind  of  singular  openness  and  of  imceas- 
ing  movement.  When  a  young  man  he 
wrote: 

I  observe  that  old  men  seldom  have  any  ad- 
vantage of  new  discoveries,  because  these  are 
beside  a  way  of  thinking  they  are  used  to. 
Resolved,  if  ever  I  live  to  years,  that  I  will  be 
impartial  to  hear  the  reasons  of  all  pretended 
discoveries,  and  receive  them,  if  rational,  how 
long  soever  I  have  been  used  to  another  way 
of  thinking. 

It  can  be  said  that  this  resolve,  made  in 
his  early  manhood,  exerted  over  Edwards 
a  continuous  influence,  an  influence  more 
decided  in  his  last  years.  In  his  published 
writings  Edwards  occasionally  forgets  the 
traditional  system  and  goes  forth  in  the 
great  quest  of  truth.  His  essays  on  ''The 
WiU/'  "The  Nature  of  Virtue,"  "The  End 
for  which  God  made  the  World,"  and  "Re- 
ligious Affections"  are  untrammeled  dis- 
cussions. They  are  related  logically  to  what 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    ij 

in  Edwards  is  deepest  and  most  truly  his 
own  —  his  conception  of  the  absolutely  per- 
fect God  —  and  they  succeed  or  fail  accord- 
ing to  their  fidelity  or  infidelity  to  that  con- 
ception. Edwards's  size  and  passion  win 
even  for  his  errors  a  kind  of  consecration; 
while  his  occasional  free  movement  in  the 
pure  vision  of  truth,  out  beyond  the  bound- 
aries of  tradition,  marks  him  as  unique  in 
his  school. 

Still,  we  must  return  to  the  simple  fact 
that  Calvinism  was  from  first  to  last  the 
philosophy  of  man  and  man's  world  held 
and  taught  by  these  thinkers.  Side  issues 
there  were  many  and  important;  large 
questions  of  theodicy  were  often  in  debate, 
especially  in  the  case  of  Bellamy  and  Hop- 
kins and  Taylor;  speculation  concerning 
the  moral  government  of  God  was  rife;  the 
consideration  of  human  freedom  called  into 
existence,  in  addition  to  the  great  treatise 
of  Edwards,  a  voluminous  literature;  the 
Divine  life  in  man  soared  away  into  a  wild 


14    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

idealism  as  in  the  Hopkinsian  conception  ot 
love;  now  and  then  these  thinkers,  and  em- 
phatically Edwards  and  Hopkins,  struck 
notes  more  akin  to  the  music  of  Spinoza 
than  to  that  of  John  Calvin,  and  we  hear  in 
them  answering  strains  to  the  lofty  one- 
sidedness  of  the  words,  "He  that  truly  loves 
God  must  not  desire  that  God  should  love 
him  in  return";  yet,  when  this  is  freely  ad- 
mitted, it  must  be  said  that  after  these  ex- 
cursions these  New  England  divines  one 
and  all  returned  to  the  main  outline  of  the 
Calvinistic  scheme,  and  settled  in  it  as  the 
final  account  of  their  religion. 


HAT  this  system  of  opinion  has 
lost  control  of  the  religious  mind 
of  the  present  generation  will  be 
universally  admitted.  There  are  many 
teachers  of  rehgion  with  no  theology,  many 
with  a  new,  and  still  more  with  a  crude 
theology,  but  nowhere  do  we  find  men  of 
modem  training  and  respectable  intellect 
holding  the  New  England  theology.  Our 
question  then  is.  How  came  this  system  of 
belief,  dominant  in  our  churches  for  more 
than  one  himdred  and  fifty  years,  suddenly 
in  the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century 
to  lose  its  hold  upon  thinking  minds?  What 
causes  brought  about  its  sudden  and  final 
collapse? 

In  any  fair  accoimt  of  this  collapse,  while 
the  chief  blame  must  lie  with  the  system 
itself,  some  blame  will  be  seen  to  attach 
to  the  state  of  the  public  mind.  There  has 


i6    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

arisen  within  the  Christian  Church  con- 
siderable indifference  to  speculative  think- 
ing. Practical  interests  have  been  engross- 
ing, as  they  should  be,  but  the  dependence 
of  living,  practical  interests  upon  funda- 
mental ideas,  and  upon  clearness  on  funda- 
mental subjects,  has  not  been  seen.  The 
mill-round  of  the  mind  has  been  substituted 
for  the  sun-path.  An  indescribable  pettiness, 
a  mean  kind  of  retail  trade,  has  largely 
taken  possession  of  the  teachers  of  religion. 
The  eternal  spaces  in  which,  like  the  planet, 
the  world  of  practical  interest  lives  and 
moves  and  has  its  being,  have  fallen  from 
the  public  mind.  Hence  questions  of  the 
origin  of  sin  and  its  permission  in  a  universe 
over  which  God  is  sovereign,  serious  think- 
ing upon  moral  government,  the  nature  of 
virtue,  the  character  of  disinterested  love, 
the  decree  of  the  Most  High  and  the  eternal 
economy  of  his  being  have  not  appealed  to 
this  generation.  To  the  discredit  of  the 
generation  be  it  said. 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    ly 

This  age  is  characterized  by  a  strong 
aversion  to  severe  thinking.  Immediacy  has 
become  a  habit,  perhaps  a  disease.  Its 
motto  is  he  that  runs  may  read,  and  the 
reader  who  intends  to  run  as  he  reads  must 
not  choose  for  his  race-course  the  New  Eng- 
land divinity.  The  New  England  writers  are 
far  from  dull;  they  know  how  to  express 
themselves  with  precision  and  vigor,  but 
they  are  thinkers,  men  who  deal  with  ideas, 
who  set  ideas  in  new  lights,  and  support 
their  views  with  definition  and  argument. 
They  tax  the  intellect  of  the  reader,  and  in 
return  for  his  toil  they  make  him  aware  of 
his  inteUigence,  a  thing  that  does  not  always 
happen  at  the  present  day  with  books  on 
theological  subjects.  The  discourses  of  Ed- 
wards and  Bellamy  and  Hopkins  and  Em- 
mons were  spoken  to  New  England  farmers, 
their  wives,  and  their  sons  and  daughters; 
and  when  they  were  published  they  were 
read  largely  by  the  same  class  of  persons. 
There  was  in  those  days  eagerness  to  attack 


i8    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

and  master  a  difficult  subject;  keen  interest 
in  matter  that,  in  order  to  be  understood, 
had  to  be  read  a  score  of  times;  enthusiasm 
for  some  attainment  in  rational  strength 
and  in  argumentative  skill.  To-day  what- 
ever cannot  be  understood  in  the  twinkling 
of  an  eye  is  generally  regarded  with  aver- 
sion. The  supreme  heresy  in  thinking  is  the 
call  to  intellectual  toil.  The  kindergarten, 
while  it  may  be  good  for  children,  when  it 
becomes  a  universal  method,  makes  escape 
from  intellectual  childhood  difficult.  If 
severe  thinking  were  as  much  admired  in 
the  New  England  of  to-day  as  it  was  in 
the  New  England  of  fifty  and  one  hundred 
years  ago,  more  respect  would  be  felt  for 
the  old  divines,  and  their  best  works  would 
be  oftener  read. 

There  is  in  the  public  mind  the  absence  of 
a  due  sense  of  the  difficulties  that  inhere  in 
every  possible  view  of  the  world.  Criticism 
of  the  New  England  system  has  been  cur- 
rent for  so  long  that  it  has  gained  possession 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    ig 

of  the  thoughtful  public.  The  criticism  is 
largely  well  founded;  but  it  is  apt  to  lead  to 
utter  revolt  from  the  works  of  these  able 
and  honest  men.  They  are  blamed  for  failing 
to  do  what  no  mortal  man  has  yet  succeeded 
in  doing,  presenting  a  philosophy  of  man's 
world  true  to  all  the  known  facts  and  giving 
complete  satisfaction  to  the  reason.  In  our 
new  thinking  we  accept  at  our  own  hands 
a  philosophy  far  enough  from  complete  ra- 
tionahty,  and  we  refuse  to  do  the  same  by 
the  men  of  the  older  thinking.  It  would  do 
our  philosophy  of  religion  good  to  be  con- 
sidered and  debated  by  the  New  England 
divines.  We  might  find,  perhaps,  that  all 
the  difficulties  and  impossibihties  are  not 
with  the  ancient  creed,  that  some  serious 
mysteries  need  clearing  up  at  our  hands. 

While  fair-minded  men  will,  I  think,  ad- 
mit the  truth  of  this  indictment  against  the 
public  mind  of  to-day,  the  charge  must  be 
renewed  that  the  chief  causes  of  collapse 
must  be  found  in  the  character  of  the  an- 


20    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

dent  creed.  The  New  England  theology  had 
taken  for  granted  that  it  was  substantially 
the  final  theology.  While  resting  in  this  easy 
assumption  it  was,  to  the  amazement  and 
incredulity  of  its  latest  masters,  suddenly 
outgrown.  It  fell  from  power  and  passed 
away  because  it  was  outgrown  by  the  reli- 
gious consciousness  whose  interpreter  and 
servant  it  professed  to  be.  On  this  ground 
its  discharge  was  inevitable.  The  full  sig- 
nificance of  this  explanation  will  become 
apparent,  I  hope,  through  the  following 
observations. 

It  must  never  be  forgotten  that  the  New 
England  divinity  was  not  in  any  profound 
sense  an  original  movement  of  thought.  It 
was  a  new  version  of  the  system  of  John 
Calvin,  in  whom  again  it  must  be  observed 
the  system  was  not  original.  As  is  well 
known,  the  New  England  theology,  while 
derived  from  Calvin,  dates  from  Augustine. 
Thoughts  of  infinite  moment  are  found  in 
rich  profusion  in  the  writings  of  Augustine, 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    21 

and  next  to  his  ecclesiasticism,  the  outline 
of  a  theological  system  contained  in  his 
works  is  the  least  of  his  services  to  the 
Christian  intellect  and  spirit.  There  are  in 
the  profound  spiritual  and  speculative  life 
of  Augustine  hints  toward  a  philosophy  of 
Christianity  other  and  infinitely  nobler  than 
that  which  he  outlined,  an  implicit  philos- 
ophy which  continues  to  invest  his  great 
spirit  with  enduring  fascination. 

Still,  the  outline  of  dogma  made  by 
Augustine  has  been  the  basis  of  the  tradi- 
tional scheme  from  that  day  to  this.  His 
idea  of  a  race  universally  depraved,  traced 
to  the  sin  of  Adam  as  its  source,  has  been  a 
ruhng  idea.  His  doctrine  of  salvation  on  the 
ground  of  Christ's  atonement,  by  irresist- 
ible grace  calling  into  existence  saving  faith 
and  securing  the  perseverance  of  the  be- 
liever, has  been  a  ruling  doctrine.  His 
scheme  of  deliverance  as  originating  in  the 
decree  of  God,  and  as  contemplating  the 
redemption  of  only  a  part  of  the  fallen  and 


22    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

miserable  race  of  man,  has  been  the  domi- 
nating scheme.  From  Augustine's  day  to 
this  the  traditional  theology  has  never  held 
the  idea  of  anything  other  or  better  than  a 
salvation  of  the  remnant.  Therefore,  not- 
withstanding the  order  and  vigor  imparted 
to  this  scheme  by  John  Calvin,  and  the 
valid  distinctions,  fruitful  modifications, 
and  noble  expansions  introduced  by  Ed- 
wards and  his  successors  down  to  Professor 
Park,  in  whom  the  line  terminates,  the 
philosophy  of  man's  Ufe  in  this  world  and 
in  the  next  presented  in  the  New  England 
theology  is  essentially  that  of  the  great 
Bishop  of  Hippo. 

The  New  England  scheme  is  thus  wanting 
in  fundamental  originality.  It  arises  out  of 
no  face-to-face  contact  with  the  problem  of 
man's  existence;  it  never  occurs  to  it  to 
interrogate  the  vast  and  tragic  reality  at 
first  hand.  Man  and  man's  world  were  not 
independent  and  absorbing  objects  of  study 
to  the  New  England  divines;  man  and  his 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    2^ 

world  did  not  possess  their  imagination;  the 
knowledge  of  human  beings  already  in  ex- 
istence did  not  in  them  raise  the  hope  of 
richer  knowledge;  the  scientific  spirit,  of 
which  Bacon  was  the  great  modem  prophet, 
the  attitude  toward  their  world  of  inquiry, 
concrete  and  severe  methods  of  study  and 
hope,  did  not  control  them;  the  human  real- 
ity before  them  did  not  win  them  into  an 
original  relation  to  it,  nor  fascinate  them 
onward  to  fresh  discoveries,  nor  so  engage 
them  that  they  could  not  let  it  go  till  they 
had  wrung  from  it  by  direct  struggle  its 
divine  secret.  These  men  were  not  seers; 
they  beheld  no  new  worlds  of  ideas  rising  up 
out  of  the  mighty  order  of  fact;  they  foimd 
no  richer  and  deeper  meanings  in  man's 
nature  and  history,  such  as  would  have  in- 
evitably suggested  a  new  plan  of  salvation. 
They  made  little  use,  as  will  be  seen  later, 
of  their  Master  in  seeking  a  principle  for  the 
interpretation  of  the  moral  character  of  the 
universe;  like  thousands  before  them  they 


24    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

missed  entirely  the  meaning  of  their  Mas- 
ter's promise  concerning  the  spirit  of  truth. 
They  assumed  that  the  religious  vision  of 
the  world  was  complete  as  given  in  the 
New  Testament;  they  did  not  grasp  the 
fact  that  the  words  of  Jesus  are  spirit  and 
life,  that  they  are  an  organism  of  spirit  and 
life;  they  never  dreamed  that  Christianity 
is  on  its  intellectual  side  the  soul  of  pure 
search  after  all  truth,  the  soul  of  assimila- 
tion to  its  own  growing  organism  of  all  the 
special  truths  in  all  the  different  depart- 
ments of  human  inquiry  and  concern;  the 
soul  that  seizes  these  threads  of  discovered 
being  wherever  found,  and  that  weaves 
them  into  the  ever-greatening  structure  of 
its  own  faith.  Like  their  predecessors,  for 
more  than  a  thousand  years,  these  New 
England  divines  were  without  original  vi- 
sion of  the  Divine  universe;  they  were 
mainly  thinkers  within  traditional  lines, 
expounders,  advocates,  diffusers  of  behefs 
that  had  been  fixed  by  ecclesiastical  author- 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    25 

ity.  All  this  is  matter  of  fact.  Whether  they 
are  to  be  praised  or  blamed  for  this  attitude 
may  indeed  admit  of  difference  of  opinion; 
concerning  the  attitude  itself,  there  is  no 
room  for  difference.  I  repeat  that  there  is  no 
distinct  original  consciousness  of  man  and 
man's  world  in  the  New  England  divines; 
nor  is  their  vision,  in  the  full  meaning  of  the 
word,  deep,  comprehensive,  free.  They  all 
read  the  tragic  reality  through  the  ancient 
categories.  They  recall  the  traditional 
scheme  essentially  unaltered,  and  they  turn 
it  into  a  philosophy  of  the  Christian  faith 
for  themselves  and  their  people.  That  such 
genius  for  theology  as  we  find  in  Edwards, 
Hopkins,  N.  W.  Taylor,  and  Edwards  A. 
Park  should  have  gone  this  dreary  way  is 
indeed  deplorable.  There  are  few  greater 
warnings  against  the  evil  of  self-commit- 
ment to  tradition.  The  suppression  of  indi- 
viduahty,  the  settled  disregard  of  inward 
misgiving  and  protest,  the  sacrifice  of  the 
ideal  of  reason  and  conscience  in  the  service 


26    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

of  faith,  have  seldom  presented  themselves 
in  more  conspicuous  examples.  Strong 
enough  as  these  men  were  to  overturn  tradi- 
tion and  throw  the  contents  of  faith  into 
new  moulds,  fitted  as  they  were  for  original 
vision  and  interpretation  of  human  exist- 
ence, they  one  and  all  adopted,  adapted, 
and  tinkered  the  ancient  scheme  while 
God's  great  growing  world  was  speeding 
forward  heedless  of  their  poor  categories. 
That  a  new  version  of  an  ancient  and  in- 
competent system,  however  impressed  with 
the  vitality  of  powerful  minds,  and  however 
the  bewildered  masses  allowed  themselves 
to  be  driven  to  rest  in  it,  could  not  last  in  a 
free  world  of  which  it  is  no  true  account 
should  seem  to  reasonable  men  only  natural, 
and  indeed  inevitable.  Originality  in  theo- 
logical theory,  fundamental  constructive 
originaHty,  there  has  been  none  from  the 
age  of  Augustine  to  the  present  generation. 
Under  such  circumstances,  in  a  growing 
world,  there  is  no  need  of  a  ghost  to  tell  us 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    27 

that  there  is  something  rotten  in  our  theo- 
logical Denmark. 

It  may  be  contended  that  there  is  one 
fairly  original  element  in  New  England 
theology,  its  theodicy.  Several  of  the  greater 
masters  of  the  school  were  deeply  concerned 
with  the  fact  of  moral  evil  and  its  existence, 
in  a  world  over  which  the  righteous  God  is 
sovereign.  Here  the  discussion  turned  upon 
two  subjects,  one  the  Divine  perfections, 
the  other  the  freedom  of  man.  Dr.  Foster 
says,  *'New  England  theology  to  the  end 
sacrificed  the  doctrine  of  freedom  to  that  of 
the  Divine  perfections."^  This  is  true,  but 
it  is  not  the  whole  truth.  The  New  England 
theologians  failed  both  in  their  conception 
of  the  Divine  perfection  and  in  their  idea  of 
human  freedom.  Here,  for  example,  is  one 
of  the  multitude  of  utterances  in  Edwards 
concerning  God.  He  had  been  speaking  with 
his  father  about  his  religious  experiences: 

And  when  the  discourse  ended  I  walked 
'  The  Collapse  of  the  New  England  Theology. 


28    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

abroad  alone,  in  a  solitary  place  in  my  father's 
pasture,  for  contemplation.  And  as  I  was  walk- 
ing there,  and  looking  up  on  the  sky  and  clouds, 
there  came  into  my  mind  so  sweet  a  sense  of  the 
glorious  majesty  and  grace  of  God  that  I  know 
not  how  to  express.  After  this  .  .  the  appear- 
ance of  everything  was  altered;  there  seemed 
to  be,  as  it  were,  a  calm,  sweet  cast,  or  appear- 
ance of  Divine  glory  in  almost  everything. 
God's  excellency,  his  wisdom,  his  purity  and 
love,  seemed  to  appear  in  everything;  in  the 
sun  and  moon  and  stars;  in  the  clouds  and  the 
blue  sky;  in  the  grass,  flowers,  trees;  in  the 
water  and  all  nature.  I  often  used  to  sit  and 
view  the  moon  for  continuance;  and  in  the  day 
spent  much  time  in  viewing  the  clouds  and  sky 
to  behold  the  sweet  glory  of  God  in  these 
things;  in  the  meantime,  singing  forth  with  a 
low  voice,  my  contemplations  of  the  Creator 
and  Redeemer. 

In  this  poetic  way  Edwards  sets  forth  in 
his  early  manhood  his  conception  of  God,  a 
conception  that  grew  upon  him  to  the  end, 
and  that  drew  into  itself  his  whole  being 
and  all  its  interests.  Here  is  the  point  at 
which  the  modem  mind  arraigns  Edwards. 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    2g 

His  vision  is  of  a  God  absolute  in  love,  and 
yet  that  vision  in  no  fundamental  sense 
rules  the  evolution  of  his  thought.  The  con- 
clusion to  which  Edwards  comes  concerning 
man's  world  is  an  appalling  contradiction  of 
the  original  vision  and  premise.  This  con- 
tradiction would  not  have  been  possible  if 
Edwards  had  conceived  the  divine  perfec- 
tion in  the  spirit  of  his  Master  Christ.  In 
Edwards's  idea  of  perfection,  and  in  that  of 
his  successors,  there  inheres  a  fatal  defect. 
This  idea  of  perfection  is  not  what  we  mean 
when  we  apply  it  to  the  best  of  men  and 
then  add  thereto  infinity.  In  the  bulk  to 
which  the  idea  is  raised  an  immense  subtle 
evil  has  crept  in.  Something  may  be  good 
in  him  that  evil  is  in  me;  this  is  the  hidden 
germ  of  unhallowed  issue  in  the  vast  and 
imposing  conception.  So  much  for  the 
New  England  theology  and  the  Divine 
perfections. 

The  idea  of  human  freedom  entertained 
by  the  masters  of  this  school  is  formal  and 


50    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

even  superficial.  Had  they  taken  Augus- 
tine's position  here,  and  held  with  him  that 
the  good  will  is  alone  free;  had  they  seen 
that  it  is  the  inevitable  tendency  of  the 
Divine  perfection  and  every  other  form  of 
moral  power  to  lead  the  will  from  bondage 
to  freedom,  they  might  have  done  perma- 
nent service  to  theology  by  their  theodicy. 
As  it  stands,  their  discussion,  both  of  the 
Divine  perfection  and  of  human  freedom, 
is  without  substantial  originality. 

Edwards  did  not  care  primarily  for  the 
freedom  of  man;  he  cared  for  it  because  of 
its  relation  to  the  sovereignty  of  God.  Only 
such  freedom  could  he  see  as  would  not  con- 
flict with  the  Divine  sovereignty.  His  idea 
of  freedom  is  simply  the  unhindered  ex- 
pression of  fixed  habit  either  good  or  bad. 
There  is  surely  little  originality  here. 
Deeper  than  the  power  of  habit  he  did  not 
go,  nor  did  he  at  any  time  divine  the  exist- 
ence in  man  of  a  rational  order  that  might 
overturn  worlds  of  evil  habit.  Plato  had 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    ji 

taught  that  right  education  consists  in  tak- 
ing pleasure,  under  the  rule  of  fixed  habit, 
in  the  proper  objects  of  pleasure.  Deeper 
than  this  Edwards  does  not  go;  his  discus- 
sion does  not  go  behind  the  pleasures,  good 
or  bad,  in  which  men  take  a  habitual  in- 
terest. 

Nathaniel  W.  Taylor  fixed  attention  upon 
the  power  to  the  contrary  in  the  will.  So  far 
so  good;  such  power  is  doubtless  there;  but 
Taylor  has  done  nothing  to  make  it  evident, 
nothing  to  show  its  worth,  supposing  it  to 
exist.  Taylor  cares  no  more  for  human  free- 
dom than  does  Edwards.  He  argues  in  favor 
of  freedom  that  he  may  save  man's  respon- 
sibility, and  thus  clear  God  of  accounta- 
bility for  the  introduction  and  continuance 
of  sin  in  the  world.  Taylor's  freedom  is  for- 
mal, and  exists  mainly  for  apologetic  pur- 
poses. Into  the  real  freedom  of  man,  or  the 
point  of  contact  between  man's  capacity 
for  real  freedom  and  the  Divine  perfection 
that  works  for  man's  freedom,  Taylor  had 


52    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

little  insight.  He  was  an  able  and  an  honest 
man;  at  the  same  time  he  was  under  the 
spell  of  abstractions.  A  power  to  the  con- 
trary which  in  the  entire  history  of  man  has 
never  been  exercised  is  something  to  which 
only  the  consciousness  of  an  apologist  can 
bear  witness.  It  is  no  true  account  of  man's 
spirit;  it  is  an  abstraction,  a  dream.  The 
freedom  of  man  is  no  such  miserable  ab- 
straction and  dialectical  device;  it  is  life 
concurrent  with  the  truth  of  things,  and  the 
relation  of  the  spirit  of  truth  to  a  will  in 
error  is  in  such  a  display  of  the  persuasions 
of  truth  that  the  reasonable  soul  shall  be 
eventually  won  by  them  from  bondage  to 
the  liberty  of  the  sons  of  God.  Freedom  is 
not  the  mere  possibility  to  go  either  of  two 
ways  at  the  fork  of  which  a  man  may  stand. 
Such  an  idea  of  freedom  is  trivial.  Freedom 
is  insight  into  the  true  order  of  existence, 
susceptibility  to  that  insight,  obedience  to 
it  and  harmonious  existence  under  it.  If  one 
is  without  that  insight,  one  has  capacity  for 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    jj 

it,  and  the  Divine  perfection  is  the  assur- 
ance that  it  will  be  ultimately  won. 

The  relation  of  Professor  Park,  one  of  the 
acutest  masters  of  the  school,  to  the  ques- 
tion of  freedom  is  interesting.  Park  main- 
tains that  the  will  always  is  as  the  greatest 
apparent  good.  If  this  is  the  case,  either  of 
two  conclusions  follows.  If  this  apparent 
good  is  unreal,  God  is  alone  responsible  for 
this  condition  of  the  individual  will.  If  the 
apparent  good  is  real  good,  the  individual 
will  is  good,  and  again  God  is  the  efficient 
cause.  But  how  are  we  to  make  the  transfer 
from  apparent  good  to  essential  good?  Obvi- 
ously there  is  but  one  answer;  it  all  depends 
upon  the  behavior  of  the  Most  High.  That 
a  mind  as  alert  and  acute  as  that  of  Park 
should  have  been  brought  to  such  a  pass  is 
indeed  strange.  It  could  not  have  happened 
if  the  thinker  in  question  had  been  pro- 
foundly concerned  with  the  free  hfe  of  man. 
In  that  case  no  one  would  have  been  keener 
in  the  observation  that  man's  rational  na- 


J4    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

ture  contains  the  provision,  under  the  illu- 
mination of  experience,  of  escape  from 
the  field  of  illusion  into  the  world  of  true 
eternal  good.  This  rational  nature,  imder 
the  illumination  of  experience,  finds  no 
adequate  recognition  in  the  thought  of  the 
New  England  divines,  and  therefore,  here 
in  the  sphere  of  their  special  activity,  no 
less  than  in  their  general  scheme,  their 
work  has  passed  from  power '  because  it 
was  wanting  both  in  originality  and  in 
depth. 

This  ancient  theology  had  in  it  from  the 
first,  and  preserved  untouched  to  the  end, 
a  fatal  contradiction.  According  to  this 
scheme  the  world  was  made  by  God,  and 
yet  the  world  in  its  misfortune  and  misery 
was  condemned  by  God  as  if  it  had  made 
itself.  When  any  good  was  found  in  the 
world,  it  was  at  once  argued  that  it  was  due 
to  God  and  his  sovereign  decree;  when 
moral  evil  and  misery  and  death  were  dis- 
covered in  the  world,  it  was  argued  that 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    35 

they  were  due  to  man  and  his  abuse  of  his 
freedom.  If  the  Divine  decree  did  not  in- 
clude the  fall  of  man,  then  the  world  broke 
from  the  Divine  control  and  remained 
mainly  triumphant  against  God;  if  the  Di- 
vine decree  did  include  the  fall  and  all  the 
events  in  human  history,  then  men  were 
obliged  to  read  the  character  of  God  from 
that  history.  Universal  predestination  and 
partial  redemption  either  eventually  wreck 
the  scheme  in  which  they  meet  or  they 
work  a  woe  infinitely  deeper;  they  wreck 
confidence  in  the  moral  character  of  God. 
Nothing  in  the  high  and  serious  thinking  of 
men  is  more  melancholy  than  the  perpetual 
see-saw  between  the  universal  decree  of 
God  and  the  imiversal  depravity  of  man  for 
which  the  human  will  is  held  accountable; 
between  the  racial  need  of  redemption  and 
the  partial  response  of  God  in  the  gift  of 
grace;  between  this  partial  bestowment  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  and  the  universality  of  the 
atonement  as  held  by  the  New  England  di- 


j6    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

vines;  between  the  sovereignty  of  the  God 
of  love  and  the  eternal  damnation  of  a  vast 
portion  of  mankind.  In  view  of  this  interior 
inconsistency,  both  intellectual  and  moral, 
the  wonder  is  not  that  the  scheme  eventu- 
ally collapsed,  but  that  it  endured  so  long. 
In  a  fair  field  and  no  favor,  in  open  and  free 
discussion,  it  would  have  gone  to  the  wall 
centuries  ago.  Authority,  sentiment,  de- 
spair, in  the  presence  of  the  task  of  find- 
ing a  better  philosophy,  fear  lest  precious 
things  should  be  exposed  to  peril  if  reason 
took  a  bolder  range,  and  the  conservative 
instinct  in  man  doubtless  combined  to  pro- 
tect and  perpetuate  this  crude  scheme;  still, 
to  authority,  to  the  absence  of  full  free- 
dom in  the  Christian  Church,  this  creed  is 
chiefly  indebted  for  its  thousand  years  of 
gloom. 

It  must  be  said  that  in  much  of  its  think- 
ing the  New  England  theology  was  artifi- 
cial. By  this  I  do  not  mean  that  it  so  ap- 
peared to  these  thinkers,  but  simply  that 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology  ^7 
their  method  led  them  away  from  human 
life.  Few  things  are  more  dreary  than  the 
New  England  discussions  on  the  atone- 
ment. Till  Bushnell  arrives  upon  the  scene 

—  and  he  is  not  in  the  New  England  circle, 
he  is  the  prophet  of  another  order  of  ideas 

—  the  atonement  in  all  the  phases  of  its 
presentation  was  as  nearly  destitute  of  ethi- 
cal value  as  anything  could  well  be.  The 
moral  Governor  of  the  world,  under  whose 
government  sin  came  into  the  world,  could 
not  forgive  it  until  a  life  of  infinite  worth 
had  been  offered  as  a  satisfaction  to  the 
majesty  of  violated  law.  This  was  the  cen- 
tral proposition  round  which  the  dreary 
and  dead  debate  proceeded.  A  moral  God 
played  only  a  nominal  part  in  the  scheme, 
a  Father  in  heaven  had  no  part  in  it,  the 
spiritual  nature  of  the  soul  was  ignored  by 
it,  and  it  never  even  got  a  glimpse  into  the 
law  of  the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus.  Of  no 
other  section  of  New  England  divinity  can 
one  say  without  some  qualification  that  it 


38    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

is  a  simple  rubbish-heap  of  dead  opinions. 
Anything  can  be  taught  in  a  divinity  school 
by  heroic  scholars,  and  anything  can  be 
studied  and  understood,  in  part,  by  persist- 
ent students;  but  ideas  there  are  that  can- 
not be  preached  with  any  degree  of  interest 
where  men  are  ethically  sound  and  men- 
tally sane.  The  record  of  the  ways  and 
means,  whereby  able  and  good  but  mis- 
guided men  tried  to  force  successive  gener- 
ations of  believers  into  emotional  states 
answering  to  the  requirements  of  the  gov- 
ernmental theory  of  the  atonement,  is  a 
record  of  the  rankest  kind  of  unreahty.  It 
is  not  to  the  point  to  say,  what  indeed  is 
true,  that  there  are  worse  forms  of  the  doc- 
trine of  the  atonement  than  the  govern- 
mental. The  contention  is  that  here  is  one 
reason  for  the  passing  of  the  system  from 
living  interest.  At  a  point  of  infinite  depth, 
the  relation  of  the  human  soul  in  sin  to  the 
Eternal  goodness,  it  had  thoughts  only 
legal,  forensic,  mechanical. 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    jg 

Indeed,  it  may  be  said  that  every  historic 
phase  of  the  atonement,  except  the  moral 
phase,  reveals  uncured  the  malady  of  the 
human  mind  to  which  Jesus  spoke  his  heal- 
ing gospel.  That  malady  is  the  issue  of  a 
false  conception  of  the  character  of  God. 
The  sacrificial  systems  of  the  world  were 
built  upon  the  idea  that  the  Divine  power 
must  be  placated  if  sinful  man  would  be  for- 
given. Propitiation  is  at  the  heart  of  them 
all;  and  so  deep  into  the  mind  of  the  most 
enlightened  races  has  this  hideous  distor- 
tion of  the  character  of  the  Eternal  Father 
gone  that  the  gospel  of  Christ,  perfected  in 
his  death  as  the  servant  of  truth  and  love 
and  attested  thereby,  would  probably  have 
failed  of  gaining  a  governing  influence  over 
those  to  whom  it  was  addressed  had  it  not 
been  translated  by  the  apostles  into  the 
sacrificial  language  of  the  people  of  Israel. 
The  soundness  of  this  remark  is  confirmed 
by  the  purpose  and  method  of  the  author  of 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  That  great 


/p    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

writer  discovers  the  pure  spirituality  of  the 
gospel  of  Christ,  its  transcendence  of  the 
old  sacrificial  system  of  Israel;  and  yet,  in 
order  to  be  understood  in  this  endeavor,  he 
is  compelled  to  translate  this  transcendent 
and  spiritual  faith  into  the  language  of 
priest,  altar,  and  sacrifice.  Thus  deep  was 
the  mental  malady  in  the  apostolic  age. 
And  here  we  see  clearly  how  that  which  is 
central  and  most  precious  in  the  gospel  of 
Jesus,  his  idea  of  the  eternal,  fatherly  love 
of  God,  was  endangered  by  this  translation 
into  the  unclean  idiom  of  the  world.  For  the 
historic  forms  of  the  atonement  are  a  chap- 
ter in  religious  pathology;  they  have  a  great 
and  a  pathetic  human  interest.  They  dis- 
cover abysmal  depths  in  man;  they  disclose 
the  vastness  and  wildness  of  man's  world. 
At  the  same  time  they  contribute  nothing 
toward  the  positive  showing  of  the  way  in 
which  the  soul  escapes  from  its  sin.  They 
build  upon  the  old  notion  which  Jesus  came 
to  displace.  In  their  successive  forms  they 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    41 

perpetuate  the  idea  that  God  is  essentially 
unfriendly  to  poor,  erring  mortals;  that  He 
requires  to  be  appeased  by  some  offering, 
propitiated  by  some  costly  sacrifice  or  satis- 
fied in  some  public  relation  of  his  character, 
before  He  can  lift  into  hope  a  penitent  child. 
From  the  point  of  view  of  the  conception  of 
God  as  Father,  the  group  of  ideas  perpetu- 
ated in  all  phases  of  the  atonement,  except 
the  moral  phase,  are  the  worst  blasphemy 
ever  offered  to  the  Most  High.  They  come 
from  religion  as  conceived  and  operated  by 
the  priesthood  of  the  world;  they  are  con- 
tradicted and  set  at  naught  by  religion  as 
conceived  and  presented  by  the  greater 
prophets  of  the  race,  and  supremely  by  the 
supreme  prophet,  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  His 
parable  of  the  Lost  Son  is  his  version  of  his 
own  heart,  his  version,  too,  of  the  heart  of 
God.  The  idea  that  heals  the  malady  of  the 
human  mind  is  the  idea  of  God  in  the  teach- 
ing and  life  and  death  of  Jesus.  In  this  re- 
currence upon  the  supreme  idea  of  Chris- 


42    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

tian  faith  the  New  England  divines  do  not 
count.  They  did  nothing,  at  this  momen- 
tous point,  to  deliver  man  from  his  blas- 
phemy against  God;  unwittingly  they  did 
much  to  confirm  him  in  unworthy  thoughts 
of  the  Eternal  lover  of  men.  The  free  world 
of  to-day  has  no  thanks  for  them  here;  in 
strict  truth  they  deserve  none. 

One  of  the  ablest  treatises  in  the  New 
England  divinity  is  Dr.  N.  W.  Taylor's 
book,  "The  Moral  Government  of  God." 
President  Porter  informs  us  that  "^The 
Moral  Government  of  God'  was  the  great 
thought  of  Dr.  Taylor's  intellect."  "It  occu- 
pied his  mind  more  than  any  and  every 
other  subject."  I  read  this  treatise  while  a 
student  in  the  seminary  more  than  forty 
years  ago,  and  I  was  then  greatly  impressed 
with  its  power.  I  have  been  reading  it  again, 
and  I  still  recognize  the  abihty  shown  in  it. 
The  plan  of  the  work  is  large,  the  discussion 
is  thorough  and  coherent,  the  order  reminds 
one  of  the  successive  deductions  in  the 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    4j 

ethics  of  Spinoza,  the  clearness,  energy,  and 
precision  of  statement  are  beyond  question. 
But  when  all  this  has  been  said,  it  must  be 
added  that  the  work  is  essentially  artificial. 
It  is  a  discussion  largely  in  the  air,  away 
from  the  great  realities  and  forces  of  human 
life;  it  is  abstract,  dialectical,  going  mainly 
in  the  strength  of  presuppositions,  wanting 
in  concreteness,  wholly  wanting  in  the  scien- 
tific spirit.  It  is  divided  into  three  sections. 
First,  the  "Moral  Government  of  God  in 
the  Abstract";  second,  the  "Moral  Govern- 
ment of  God  in  Nature";  third,  the  "Moral 
Government  of  God  in  the  Scriptures."  The 
analogy  upon  which  the  work  is  constructed 
is  civil  government.  For  Dr.  Taylor  God 
was  a  sovereign  ruler  after  the  pattern  of 
civil  rulers  upon  earth.  This  was  the 
thought  that  chiefly  occupied  his  intellect, 
and  the  idea  which  is  basal  in  Christianity 
and  the  heart  and  soul  of  its  message,  the 
idea  of  the  Eternal  Father,  had  no  percep- 
tible influence  upon  this  thinker  in  his  chief 


44    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

contribution  to  the  theological  thought  of 
his  time.  If  New  England  divinity,  in  the 
hands  of  one  of  its  greatest  representatives, 
could  be  so  much  in  the  air,  so  far  away 
from  man's  moral  world,  so  unaware  of  the 
supreme  conception  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ,  it  should  not  seem  strange  that 
among  weaker  men  it  became  still  more 
imreal. 

One  of  the  great  merits  claimed  for  the 
New  England  divinity  was  its  distinction 
between  natural  and  moral  ability.  All  men 
had  the  natural  ability  to  repent  of  their 
sins  and  perfectly  to  keep  the  law  of  God;  all 
men  were  without  the  moral  ability,  that  is, 
the  willingness  to  repent  of  their  sins  and  to 
meet  their  perfect  obligation  to  the  law  of 
God.  There  is  perhaps  some  merit  in  the 
distinction.  There  is  an  impulse,  often 
enough  unliberated,  in  the  rational  nature 
of  the  soul,  a  reserve  of  energy  in  the  form 
of  capacity  below  the  structure  of  evil 
habit,  to  which  the  Christian  appeal  may 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    45 

sink.  If  looked  at  in  this  way,  the  distinction 
may  be  considered  valid.  The  whole  capac- 
ity of  the  soul  is  not  expressed  in  the  current 
bad  character.  There  is  a  capacity  below  the 
actual  evil  character  to  which  the  sovereign 
moral  appeal  may  come,  a  capacity  which 
when  spoken  to  with  might  may  become  a 
blazing  power  in  which  the  evil  character  is 
consumed.  But  this  was  not  the  way  in 
which  the  New  England  divines  were  in  the 
habit  of  regarding  the  distinction.  It  was 
mainly  an  apologetic  device,  in  aid  of  the 
theologian  when  he  was  hard  pressed  in 
other  parts  of  his  system.  Why  should  God 
involve  the  whole  race  with  Adam  and  thus 
necessitate  a  first  choice  that  was  evil  and 
an  endless  succession  of  choices  all  bad? 
The  reply  was,  there  was  no  necessity  in  the 
case.  Man  had  the  natural  power  not  to  sin, 
the  natural  ability  perfectly  to  meet  the 
demands  of  moral  law.  Why  should  God 
elect  only  a  portion  of  this  fallen  race  to  sal- 
vation and  thus  exclude  the  rest?  The  reply 


46    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

was,  that  God  does  not  exclude  the  rest; 
they  have  the  power  to  repent  of  their  sins, 
to  believe  on  Jesus  Christ,  to  cast  them- 
selves upon  God  for  salvation  and  be  saved. 
But  no  man  comes  to  God  unless  he  is  under 
the  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  why 
should  the  non-elect  be  left  beyond  the  pale 
of  the  Spirit's  influence?  The  reply  is,  that 
they  are  without  excuse  in  not  coming  to 
God  without  the  special  aid  of  the  Spirit 
seeing  they  have  the  full  natural  ability  to 
come.  Thus  ran  the  wretched  riot  of  dialec- 
tical unreality.  Professor  Park,  when  he 
came,  in  the  course  of  his  famous  lectures, 
to  the  discussion  of  natural  ability  and 
moral  inability,  was  in  the  habit  of  remark- 
ing to  his  class  with  grim  humor, 

*'  Ye  who  have  tears  to  shed, 
Prepare  to  shed  them  now." 

The  memory  of  that  wild  wilderness  in 
which  was  no  Hving  thing,  not  even  scor- 
pions or  flying  plagues,  a  wilderness  pre- 
destined never  to  rejoice  or  blossom  as  the 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    47 

rose,  IS  indeed  a  memory  of  the  dire  distress 
of  the  Christian  Church  in  New  England. 

Another  conspicuous  defect  of  the  New 
England  divinity  was  its  restricted  use  of 
human  reason.  With  all  its  confidence  in 
reason  and  its  bold  rationalism  in  certain 
fields  of  inquiry,  it  set  fixed  bounds  to  the 
operation  of  free  thought,  saying  here  shall 
thy  proud  waves  be  stayed.  It  inherited  the 
unholy  distinction  between  natural  and  re- 
vealed reHgion;  it  gave  free  scope  to  the 
human  mind  only  in  the  sphere  of  natural 
religion.  The  Bible,  as  the  record  of  revealed 
religion,  was  indeed  the  subject  of  scholar- 
ship, historical,  textual,  interpretative;  but 
when  the  history  was  clear,  the  text  settled, 
and  the  interpretation  fixed,  the  function  of 
reason  was  at  an  end.  The  result  must  be 
accepted,  whether  it  was  the  story  in  the 
Book  of  Exodus  about  God  hardening  Pha- 
raoh's heart  that  he  might  destroy  him,  or 
the  account  in  the  Gospels  of  Christ's  sur- 
render of  his  Hfe  for  the  good  of  the  world. 


48    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

Theology  became  a  construction  of  texts 
from  all  parts  of  the  Hebrew  and  Christian 
Scriptures.  The  leading  doctrines  —  pre- 
destination, election,  depravity,  propitia- 
tion, forensic  justification,  the  limitation  of 
moral  opportunity  to  this  life,  everlasting 
punishment  of  the  wicked  and  the  heavenly 
life  of  believers  —  were  found  in  texts  in  all 
the  Books  of  the  Bible,  and  were  accorded 
equal  value  wherever  found.  If  the  moral 
sense  revolted  at  the  result,  as  in  Emmons's 
sermon  on  ^'Reprobation,"  or  the  doctrine 
of  election  advocated  as  baldly  by  N.  W. 
Taylor  as  by  any  of  the  school,  so  much  the 
worse  for  the  moral  sense.  Here  is  Scripture 
properly  interpreted  and  here  is  the  result; 
accept  or  reject  it;  there  it  stands,  and  from 
its  finality  there  is  no  appeal.  A  theology 
constructed  in  this  way  built  into  itself  the 
soul  of  revolt,  the  sure  prophecy  of  its 
own  ultimate  destruction.  There  can  be  no 
forced  results  of  an  abiding  character  in  the 
sphere  of  thought.  Coercion  is  something 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    4g 

to  which  the  human  intellect  cannot  per- 
manently surrender.  Authority  itself  is 
bound  to  become  the  subject  of  arrest,  trial, 
and  judgment.  While  that  day  is  deferred 
the  Bible  stands  outside  the  process  of  the 
critical  intellect;  and  from  its  vast  compass 
the  system  of  traditional  dogma  may  be 
established.  But  the  thing  established  on 
authority  can  last  only  while  the  authority 
lasts;  when  the  authority  decays,  the  super- 
structure of  dogma  falls  to  the  ground. 

As  we  look  back  from  our  own  free  world, 
this  restriction  of  reason  to  a  particular 
field,  this  exclusion  of  it  from  the  field  of 
profoundest  moment,  seems  very  strange. 
Why  did  these  men  fail  to  learn  from  the 
process  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  their  own 
souls?  Why  did  they  not  see  that  life  is  the 
parent  of  literature;  that  wherever  God  is 
in  the  hfe  of  men,  in  their  thoughts,  feelings, 
purposes,  and  achievements,  He  will  neces- 
sarily be  in  their  words?  In  what  way  did  it 
escape  them  that  man  is  most  of  an  agent, 


$0    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

most  of  a  creative  power,  when  most  under 
the  influence  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  that 
wherever  words  carry  the  burden  of  the 
Lord  they  carry  that  burden  on  the  active 
humanity  of  men?  How  came  it  to  pass  that 
these  acute  thinkers  did  not  discern  the 
origin  of  the  monumental  parts  of  the  Bible 
in  the  human  life  that  God  had  filled  with 
his  Eternal  presence?  Had  they  faced  such 
questions  the  Bible  would  have  opened  to 
them  a  new  and  a  momentous  expanse  of 
human  experience,  the  supreme  opportunity 
for  the  achieving  reason  of  man. 

There  is  only  one  answer  to  these  ques- 
tions. These  men  conceived  of  the  Bible  as 
chiefly  a  book  of  mysteries;  the  doctrines  of 
revealed  religion  were  at  heart  mysteries, 
and  the  best  work  of  the  human  intellect 
was  done  when  the  super-intelligible  char- 
acter of  the  doctrine  was  exhibited.  These 
doctrines  were  for  faith  and  not  for  reason; 
they  were  for  faith,  not  as  all  unverified 
ideas  are  for  faith,  but  for  faith  as  passing 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    51 

all  understanding.  The  New  England  di- 
vinity was,  therefore,  in  no  adequate  sense 
an  expression  of  the  free  mind;  it  was  not 
the  result  of  the  unrestricted  use  of  reason. 
It  was  a  compound  of  reason  and  tradition, 
the  mixed  issue  of  freedom  and  authority. 
It  is  not  edifying  to  see  Edwards,  in  the  full 
movement  of  speculation,  suddenly  pause, 
begin  a  new  section  of  his  essay,  and  lug  into 
his  argument  proof-texts  from  every  corner 
of  the  Bible  to  cover  the  incompleteness  of 
his  rational  procedure.  He  who  had  such 
high  confidence  in  reason,  so  wide  a  vision 
of  its  field,  and  who  exercised  his  own  great 
gift  of  insight  and  argument  with  such  fear- 
less vigor,  yet  never  dreamed  that  the  Bible 
itself  is  the  supreme  product  of  hmnan  rea- 
son and  the  supreme  field  for  the  exercise  of 
the  reason  in  the  service  of  the  Spirit.  The 
isolation  of  the  human  from  the  Divine  by 
all  these  thinkers,  except  Emmons,  was  per- 
haps the  source  of  this  hmitation,  the  put- 
ting asunder  of  what   God  has  forever 


52    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

joined.  Whatever  the  cause  may  have  been, 
the  view  that  finds  in  the  Bible  the  sover- 
eign expression  of  reason  and  the  field  for 
the  exercise  of  reason  of  highest  moment, 
was  hidden  from  Edwards  and  all  his  suc- 
cessors; they  never  gained  the  least  insight 
into  the  nature  of  the  revelation  recorded  in 
the  Bible.  That  revelation  was  to  them  a 
process  singular,  unique,  different,  not  only 
in  degree,  but  in  kind,  from  the  fife  of  holy 
souls  among  other  nations  and  among  them- 
selves, isolated,  super-intelligible,  an  oracle 
whose  message  must  be  accepted  even 
against  the  protest  of  the  reason  and  the 
conscience. 

These  criticisms  apply  equally,  it  need 
hardly  be  said,  to  traditional  theology  in  its 
entire  course.  The  attitude  of  indiscriminat- 
ing  reverence  toward  the  Bible  was,  on  the 
part  of  the  New  England  divines,  the  inher- 
itance of  faith.  They  were  in  bondage  to  a 
book,  and  while  it  is  the  supreme  Book  to 
which  they  were  in  bondage,  the  fact  that. 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    55 

here,  in  this  greatest  sphere  of  the  free  in- 
tellect, they  had  no  dream  of  the  function  of 
the  intellect,  is  another  reason  why  their 
dominion  has  passed  away.  In  ideal,  in 
method,  and  in  result  they  are  superseded. 
Their  ideal  of  the  sphere  of  reason  was  a 
meager  and  restricted  ideal;  their  method 
was  without  scientific  temper  and  sureness; 
their  results  were  the  uncritical  compound 
of  error  and  truth,  of  essential  and  valueless, 
that  one  might  expect.  And  if  these  words 
seem  severe,  let  it  be  remembered  that  the 
holy  cause  of  sound  thinking  in  the  interest 
of  religion,  especially  in  the  interest  of  the 
Christian  religion,  has  suffered  too  long 
from  timidity  in  the  presence  of  great 
names. 

It  must  be  still  further  observed  that  ex- 
cept in  a  single  direction  the  New  England 
divinity  refused  to  learn  from  its  adversa- 
ries. It  did  indeed  put  itself  in  battle  array. 
It  became  keenly  alert  to  strategic  positions 
both  for  offense  and  defense.  Under  attack 


54    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

it  assumed  a  more  compact  and  formidable 
dialectical  shape.  Comparison  between  the 
form  which  the  New  England  divinity  as- 
sumed in  the  hands  of  Edwards  and  his  im- 
mediate successors,  and  that  in  which  it 
was  presented  by  N.  W.  Taylor  and  Ed- 
wards A.  Park,  shows  that  the  system  in  the 
hands  of  these  later  masters  gained  greatly 
in  dialectical  strength.  Indeed,  Park  spent 
too  much  of  his  force  here.  He  had  the  gift 
of  the  dialectician  in  unsurpassed  power. 
No  man  in  our  American  world  now  living 
will  bear  comparison  with  him  here.  He  de- 
veloped the  logical  function  to  the  highest 
point  of  efficiency,  and  till  they  sat  under 
the  teaching  of  Park,  students  did  not  know 
how  fascinating  the  logician  could  be.  Dr. 
Foster  is  undoubtedly  right  in  saying  that 
this  thinker  did  the  best  that  could  be  done 
with  the  materials  given  him. 

But  if  strong  opponents  thus  pressed  the 
New  England  divinity  into  better  dialecti- 
cal form  in  the  hands  of  its  later  masters, 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    5s 

these  masters  refused  to  learn  materially 
from  their  adversaries.  Arminianism  was 
deeply  concerned  with  the  freedom  of  the 
will,  and  with  the  reality  of  man's  responsi- 
bility for  his  deeds.  New  England  Calvinism 
met  this  deep  moral  concern  with  ill-con- 
cealed logical  contempt,  with  the  ghostly 
distinction  between  natural  ability  and 
moral  ability,  and  with  the  poor  verbalism 
of  the  power  of  choice  to  the  contrary 
which,  apart  from  electing  grace,  in  the 
entire  history  of  mankind  had  never  once 
been  exercised.  New  England  Calvinism, 
under  pressure  of  the  moral  soundness  and 
passion  of  Arminianism,  never  once  faced, 
in  scientific  temper,  the  question  of  human 
freedom;  it  continued  to  treat  this  burning 
issue  dialectically;  it  therefore  refused  to 
learn  from  an  adversary  less  powerful  than 
itself  in  intellect,  but  upon  the  question  in 
debate  morally  deeper  and  truer  far  to  the 
consciousness  of  normal  men. 
Equally  persistent  was  the  refusal  to 


5^    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

learn  from  Unitarianism.  From  the  first 
Unitarianism  was  regarded  with  dread  as 
the  supreme  form  of  heresy.  Unitarianism 
so  wounded  devout  feeling  for  Jesus  Christ, 
so  struck  at  what  it  regarded  here  as  su- 
perstition, appeared  so  indifferent  to  that 
which  the  New  England  divines  conceived 
to  be  the  essence  of  the  Christian  faith,  that 
they  are  not  without  excuse  in  their  attitude 
of  exclusion.  But  while  they  are  not  without 
excuse,  they  are  without  justification.  They 
failed  in  the  presence  of  an  immense  oppor- 
timity.  For  it  has  become  obvious  to  com- 
petent judges  in  all  denominations  that 
Unitarianism,  in  the  hands  of  Channing 
and  his  successors,  rediscovered  the  Chris- 
tian doctrine  of  man.  This  is  a  service  for 
which  immortal  thanks  are  due;  and  as  is 
generally  the  way  in  cases  of  this  kind,  the 
thanks  are  expressed  by  silent  appropria- 
tion on  the  part  of  all  enlightened  religious 
bodies  of  the  idea  thus  rediscovered,  and 
with  no  recognition,  but  with  even  aversion 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    57 

for  the  rediscoverers.  To  be  sure,  the  Uni- 
tarians were  quick  to  follow  with  a  similar 
device.  They  took  over  into  their  body 
of  thought,  without  acknowledgment  and 
without  reasoned  insight,  the  heart  of  Trini- 
tarianism  theology;  they  put  into  God  the 
Father  the  content  of  character  and  pity 
found  in  the  second  person  of  the  Trini- 
tarian faith;  they  gave  what  they  had  taken 
a  new  name  and  nothing  more.  Our  business 
here,  however,  is  not  with  the  weakness  but 
with  the  strength  of  Unitarianism  in  rela- 
tion to  the  exclusiveness  of  the  New  Eng- 
land divinity.  In  the  face  of  the  self-evident 
and  glorious  humanism  of  Jesus  revived  by 
the  Unitarian  movement,  the  masters  of  the 
traditional  divinity  presented  on  the  whole 
a  closed  mind.  In  no  perceptible  degree 
did  it  influence  their  doctrine  of  man.  He 
still  continued,  from  birth  to  conversion 
and  adoption,  a  lost  soul  and  no  child  of 
God. 
Here  the  failure  of  the  New  England  di- 


55    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

vines  meant  disaster  to  their  cause.  They 
lost  the  chance  to  appropriate  the  Christian 
doctrine  of  man,  to  affirm  two  incarnations; 
one  in  all  men  because  they  are  children  of 
God;  the  other  in  Jesus  Christ  as  the  su- 
preme Son  of  God;  one  universal  and  the 
other  ideal,  in  the  light  of  which  the  imiver- 
sal  is  to  be  understood.  They  lost  the  chance 
to  renew  in  a  deeper  and  surer  way  their 
doctrine  of  Christ  and  their  doctrine  of  God 
through  the  new  doctrine  of  man.  This,  I 
take  it,  is  one  of  the  greater  mistakes  of  the 
.  traditional  divinity.  It  never  did  see  the 
value  of  man;  it  could  not  take  in  that  value 
when  brought  to  its  attention  by  its  Uni- 
tarian adversaries;  it  did  not  dream  of  the 
fruitfulness  for  Christology  and  theology  of 
a  new  consciousness  of  the  worth  of  man. 
It  was  essentially,  if  the  paradox  may  be 
pardoned,  an  inhuman  humanism;  it  weilt 
to  the  wall  finally  because  untrue  to  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  concerning  man  and  God. 
Properly  understood,  Unitarianism  is  the 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    jq 

complement  of  Trinitarianism  no  less  than 
its  rival;  that  is,  if  the  Trinitarian  belief  in  a 
social  God  is  to  live,  it  must  be  matched 
with  the  Unitarian  faith  in  a  social  himaan- 
ity.  Further,  there  must  be  between  the  two 
sets  of  beliefs  action  and  reaction,  if  they 
are  to  come  to  their  full  development.  If 
with  the  Trinitarian  we  say  God  is  Father, 
with  the  Unitarian  we  must  say  man  is  the  j 
inalienable  child  of  God;  if  with  the  Trini- 
tarian we  claim  that  there  is  a  special,  ideal  | 
incarnation  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ,  answer-  ^ 
ing  to  his  vocation  in  the  history  of  religion  . 
in  the  earth,  we  must  contend  with  the  Uni- 1 
tarian  that  there  is  a  imiversal  incarnation  \ 
in  mankind  in  virtue  of  which  man  is  man 
with  the  impulse  of  the  Eternal  in  his  heart. 
In  failing  to  see  in  the  positive  message  of 
Unitarianism  the  complement  to  what  was 
highest  in  their  own  faith,  and  the  correc- 
tion of  its  malady  of  errors  about  man,  the 
masters  of  the  New  England  theology  made 
a  supreme  mistake. 


6o    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

Universalism  was  the  third  stout  antago- 
nist of  the  New  England  di\anity.  It  met 
with  the  exclusiveness  which  had  been 
meted  out  to  Unitarianism.  Besides,  a  spe- 
cial scorn  fell  upon  it  because  of  its  defi- 
ciency in  scholarship  and  in  intellectual 
power.  There  was,  it  must  be  admitted, 
some  excuse  for  this  attitude  toward  the 
new  doctrine.  In  its  early  and  popular 
forms  Universalism  was  more  concerned  in 
getting  all  men  to  heaven  than  in  getting 
them  into  a  fit  condition  to  enjoy  heaven 
when  they  arrived  there.  Nothing  could  be 
more  shocking  to  the  majestic  moral  sense 
of  the  Puritan  than  popular  Universalism's 
easy  ideas  about  sin,  its  shallowness  upon 
every  question  of  conscience,  its  conversion 
of  the  most  worthy  Judge  Eternal  into 
an  infinite,  indiscriminating  sentimentahst. 
From  the  first,  Universalism  was  a  great 
interest,  but  for  many  years  it  was  an  in- 
terest poorly  served.  It  came  as  a  protest 
against  an  inhuman  view  of  God;  it  was  not 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    6i 

accompanied  by  a  deep  concern  about  per- 
sonal righteousness.  It  spent  too  much  of 
its  force  in  denunciation  of  the  orthodox 
God  and  not  enough  upon  the  character  of 
the  universalist  man.  It  did  not  go  deep 
enough  to  see  that  man  has  but  one  interest, 
and  that  is  righteousness.  If  it  had  seen  this 
and  seen  it  whole,  it  could  have  repeated 
with  tremendous  power  the  words  of  Soc- 
rates: "There  is  no  evil  that  can  happen  to 
a  good  man,  whether  he  be  alive  or  dead"; 
and  the  kindred  words  of  Paul,  "All  things 
work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love 
God."  If  Universalism's  doctrine  of  the 
future  had  risen  up  out  of  the  heart  of  its 
passion  to  make  man  righteous,  its  power 
would  have  been  greater  far.  As  it  stood 
it  did  not  call  for  strenuous  moral  man- 
hood. 

This  was  an  unutterable  offense  to  the 
masters  of  the  New  England  theology.  This 
unfortunate  circumstance  concealed  from 
them  the  real  question  raised  by  Universal- 


62    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

ism  —  the  moral  character  of  God.  If  they 
had  been  wise,  they  would  have  taken  Whit- 
tier's  "Eternal  Goodness"  as  the  form  of 
the  doctrine  profitable  for  study;  if  they  had 
been  prophetic,  they  would  have  seen  how 
the  admission  into  their  theodicy  of  the 
main  contention  of  Universalism  —  the 
love  of  God  for  every  soul  that  he  has  made 
and  his  everlasting  purpose  to  pursue  with 
his  redeeming  grace  all  souls  in  all  worlds  — 
would  have  given  it  new  range,  reality,  life, 
and  worth.  For  here  again  the  heresy  was 
the  complement  of  the  orthodoxy.  The  only 
original  element  in  the  New  England  divin- 
ity was  its  theodicy;  that  theodicy  with  the 
insight  of  Universalism  left  out  was  meager 
and  hopeless;  with  this  insight  included  as 
a  principle  of  revision  and  extension  the 
theodicy  would  have  been  living  and  potent 
to-day.  For  Universalism  has  brought  for- 
ward the  larger  view;  and  the  larger  view 
has  proved  to  be  the  worthier  view.  No  in- 
terest of  morality  is  endangered  by  the  faith 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    6j 

that  the  Infinite  works  and  works  eternally 
for  the  perfect  righteousness  of  every  hu- 
man soul.  It  will  be  seen,  I  think,  that  the 
moral  hope  of  the  race  is  grounded  upon 
this  faith. 

This  inhospitality  of  the  New  England 
divinity  toward  new  and  reconstructive 
ideas,  together  with  the  other  defects 
noted  —  its  traditionalism,  its  inclusion  of 
fatal  contradiction  in  its  own  heart,  its  arti- 
ficial mode  of  thought,  and  its  restricted  use 
of  reason  —  kept  the  system  stationary  in 
a  swiftly  growing  world.  It  fell  from  power 
because  it  was  found  beneath  the  best  re- 
ligious consciousness  of  the  time.  It  was 
found  to  be  outgrown  in  two  fundamental 
ways;  it  was  outgrown  in  knowledge  and  in 
ethical  conceptions.  A  brief  statement  of 
fact  is  sufficient  to  show  that  it  was  out- 
grown in  knowledge.  It  knew  nothing  of  the 
application  of  the  methods  of  free  historical 
inquiry  to  the  Bible.  It  never  took  the  posi- 
tion of  the  scientific  historian,  regarding  the 


64    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

rise  and  character  of  Biblical  ideas.  Of  the 
Bible  as  it  emerges  from  the  study  of  the 
just  and  devout  scientific  scholar  the  New 
England  divinity  was  simply  ignorant.  Its 
view  of  the  Hebrew  and  Christian  Scrip- 
tures was  outgrown.  In  regard  to  the  natu- 
ral history  of  man  it  was  overtaken  by  the 
same  fate.  The  theory  that  runs  the  many 
different  forms  of  existence  in  the  world 
to-day  back  to  a  common  primitive  vitality, 
that  traces  the  wide-branching  tree  of  life 
downward  to  one  original  root,  they  refused 
seriously  to  entertain.  Adam  was  for  them 
the  head  of  the  race  behind  which  they  did 
not  care  to  go.  To  the  last,  in  spite  of  the 
new  vista  introduced  by  evolution,  the  New 
England  divines  continued  to  build  their 
doctrine  of  man  upon  a  Hebrew  myth. 
These  men,  with  all  their  acuteness  and 
power,  were  essentially  provincial  in  their 
outlook  upon  the  world.  In  general  they 
knew  next  to  nothing  of  the  world  of  fruitful 
ideas  in  the  philosophy  of  the  Greeks  and 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    65 

Germans;  nor  did  they  know  deeply  the 
best  things  in  French  and  English  philos- 
ophy. When  compared  with  the  greater 
systems  of  thought  their  system  was  a  poor 
and  meager  f  ormaHsm.  The  riches  of  the  in- 
tellectual life  of  the  world  lay  largely  out- 
side their  scheme.  In  general,  of  this  world 
of  wealth  these  men  were  unaware.  In  the 
few  instances,  like  that  of  Henry  B.  Smith, 
where  knowledge  was  ample,  it  meant  noth- 
ing for  the  system  of  theology.  Nor  was 
there  anywhere  large  knowledge  of  the 
great  rehgions  of  the  race  outside  of  Chris- 
tianity, nor  the  least  sign  of  a  scientific  tem- 
per toward  them.  Among  the  New  England 
divines  there  is  no  such  book  as  that  of 
Maurice  on  "The  Rehgions  of  the  World." 
In  consequence  of  this  limitation  of  outlook 
to  their  own  rehgion,  they  were  unable  to 
disengage  in  it  the  eternal  from  the  tem- 
poral. They  were  almost  as  much  concerned 
about  miracles  as  they  were  about  the  life 
of  God  in  the  Christian  soul.  They  never 


66    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

rose  to  the  position  from  which  the  scholar 
sees  that  while  miracles  are  the  concomi- 
tants of  all  the  religions,  they  are  essential 
to  none;  that  religion  is  essentially  the  life 
of  God  in  man;  and  where  God's  Hfe,  as 
Infinite  love,  is  purest  and  richest,  as  in 
Jesus  Christ,  there  religion  exists  in  its 
supreme  form  and  power. 

That  the  later  New  England  divines 
should  have  allowed  themselves  to  be  out- 
grown in  knowledge  is  a  surprise;  that  they 
should  have  allowed  themselves  to  be  out- 
grown in  ethical  ideas  is  something  of  a  re- 
proach. Such  is  the  fact.  Edwards's  vision 
of  God,  that  upon  which  his  rapt  soul  fed, 
that  in  whose  strength  he  lived  his  great 
life,  is  destitute  of  reconstructive  influence 
upon  the  Calvinism  which  he  adopts  and 
defends.  The  system  of  Edwards  as  a  philos- 
ophy of  man's  world,  upon  the  assumption 
that  God  exists  and  that  He  is  absolutely 
good,  is  morally  incredible.  It  is  beneath  the 
moral  consciousness  of  the  average  respec- 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    67 

table  person  in  any  civilized  community. 
Hopkins's  ideal  of  a  disinterested  soul  is 
great  and  of  enduring  and  pathetic  value, 
yet  it  in  no  way  enabled  him  to  read  the 
character  of  the  Eternal  in  terms  consonant 
with  an  enlightened  conscience.  The  doc- 
trines of  the  fall,  ensuing  universal  deprav- 
ity, and  obligation  to  obedience  where  only 
the  ghost  of  power  was  conceded  to  exist  in 
natural  ability,  limited  election,  limited  be- 
stowment  of  saving  grace,  and  eternal  pun- 
ishment for  all  who  were  found  impenitent 
at  death,  are  as  a  whole  a  body  of  teaching 
entirely  outgrown  by  enlightened  men.  It 
would,  indeed,  be  the  supreme  miracle,  the 
contradiction  of  the  solemn  order  and  best 
hope  of  mankind,  if  a  system,  thus  found  to 
lie  far  below  the  moral  consciousness  of  en- 
lightened persons,  should  still  maintain  its 
ascendancy  over  them.  The  New  England 
divinity  fell  from  its  ancient  throne  because 
it  was  found  inadequate  in  knowledge  and 
inferior  in  moral  ideas.  Its  greatest  over- 


68    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

sight  I  reserve  for  remark  later,  its  failure 
to  read  the  character  of  the  universe  by  the 
sovereign  fact  in  its  faith,  the  character  of 
Jesus  Christ. 


Ill 

r  IS  high  time  to  change  the  tenor 
of  remark,  since  this  discussion  is 
not  wholly  a  diagnosis  of  the 
causes  of  death,  nor  altogether  an  obituary 
of  the  New  England  theology.  It  is  high 
time  to  call  attention  to  the  surviving  worth 
in  it,  to  the  eternal  soul  that  we  recognize 
all  the  more  clearly  that  the  old  formahsm 
in  which  it  lived  has  passed  away.  This  pre- 
cious survival  is  both  subjective  and  objec- 
tive, a  tradition  of  great  men  devoted  to 
the  highest  human  interest  and  a  cluster 
of  shining  and  imperishable  ideas. 

When  the  general  growth  of  the  commu- 
nity in  knowledge  has  rendered  obsolete  a 
previous  system  of  thought,  it  is  the  easiest 
thing  in  the  world,  and  one  of  the  cheapest, 
to  underestimate  the  intellectual  power  of 
the  masters  of  that  system.  From  this  sort 
of  ruthless  inhumanity  fair-minded  men 


yo    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

recoil.  Progress  calls  for  the  conservation  of 
every  kind  of  noble  power,  and  among  the 
noblest  kinds  of  power  is  the  authentic  tra- 
dition of  great  minds,  enthusiastically  de- 
voted to  the  discovery  and  the  defense  of 
the  ultimate  meaning  of  man's  world.  The 
person  who  can  read  the  greater  treatises  of 
Edwards  without  perceiving  that  he  is  in 
contact  with  an  extraordinary  intellect  is 
not  to  be  envied.  Edwards  impresses  the 
honest  and  competent  student  as  a  mind 
of  uncommon  acuteness,  massiveness,  and 
depth.  He  is  amazing  in  the  fertility  and 
force  of  his  argumentative  power.  He  ap- 
proaches the  character  of  the  Platonic  phi- 
losopher as  a  "spectator  of  all  time  and  all 
existence."  Under  idioms  of  behef  and 
speech  that  are  outgrown,  it  is  easy  to  rec- 
ognize speculative  genius  of  a  high  order, 
and  pervading  the  speculation  the  passion 
of  a  great  religious  genius.  The  image  of  this 
great  thinker  on  the  banks  of  the  Connecti- 
cut or  among  the  Berkshire  Hills  is  an  abid- 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    yi 

ing  consolation  to  all  serious  students  of 
man's  great  and  tragic  world.  And  the 
higher  the  student  rises  in  intellectual 
power  and  in  moral  passion,  the  more  mas- 
sive and  beautiful  in  his  imagination  will 
the  great  figure  of  Edwards  loom. 

Few  preachers  are  so  highly  trained  as  to 
be  incapable  of  learning  anything  concern- 
ing the  prophetic  function  from  the  works 
of  Joseph  Bellamy.  He  was  a  Connecticut 
pastor,  in  many  ways  isolated  from  the 
great  world  of  learning;  yet  in  his  isolation 
he  annexed  the  fortunes  of  the  race  to  his 
parish  and  fixed  in  it  a  large  vision  of  the 
universe.  This  man's  ministry  was  not  con- 
cerned with  the  organization  of  clubs,  nor 
with  serving  tables.  It  was  free  from  the  pet- 
tiness that  is  the  curse  of  the  ministry  in  our 
time.  It  was  occupied  with  the  dispensation 
of  the  Eternal,  and  made  its  power  felt  in 
every  parish  and  in  every  academic  center 
in  New  England.  It  knew,  too,  the  art  of 
sound  reasoning  and  clear,  effective  speech. 


y2    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

It  remains  a  tradition  of  intellectual  and 
moral  power  fitted  to  aid  materially  to-day 
in  recalling  preachers  to  the  exalted  possi- 
bilities of  their  vocation. 

Of  Samuel  Hopkins,  Dr.  Channing 
writes: 

He  was  an  illustration  of  the  power  of  our 
spiritual  nature.  In  narrow  circumstances,  with 
few  outward  indulgences,  in  great  seclusion,  he 
yet  found  much  to  enjoy.  He  lived  in  a  world 
of  thought,  above  all  earthly  passions.  ^  , 

It  is  not  strange  that  out  of  such  a  soul 
should  have  come  the  loftiest  piece  of  moral 
idealism  in  the  literature  of  our  country. 
His  essay  on  the  "Nature of  True  Holiness  " 
is  indeed  a  kind  of  classic  upon  the  life  of 
the  spirit  and  the  heights  to  which  a  great 
soul  may  soar.  Here  was  a  mind  that  had 
found  the  supreme  secret  of  existence;  that 
had  found  it  in  the  world  of  love  and  service 
girt  about  with  privation  of  every  kind,  and 
pitiless  misunderstandings.  Channing  fur- 
ther relates  of  this  master: 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    ^j 

I  preached  for  him  once,  and  after  the  service 
in  the  pulpit  he  smiled  on  me,  and  said,  "  The 
hat  is  not  made  yet.''  On  my  asking  an  explana- 
tion, he  told  me  that  Dr.  Bellamy  used  to 
speak  of  theology  as  a  progressive  science,  and 
compared  the  different  stages  of  it  to  the  suc- 
cessive processes  of  making  a  hat.  The  beaver 
was  to  be  born,  then  to  be  killed,  and  then  the 
felt  to  be  made,  etc.  Having  thus  explained  the 
sunilitude,  he  added,  "The  hat  is  not  made, 
and  I  hope  you  will  help  to  finish  it.'* 

The  devout  wish  was  fulfilled  in  Channing, 
and  still  it  is  true  that  "the  hat  is  not 
made."  This  sense  of  the  incompleteness  of 
the  work  of  his  hands,  of  the  work  of  his 
generation,  is  indispensable  to  the  thinker 
in  every  science;  it  is  indispensable  to  the 
thinker  in  the  science  of  theology;  and  it  is 
the  precious  inheritance  from  the  New  Eng- 
land divines. 

Nathanael  Emmons  is  a  unique  figure  in 
the  history  of  the  New  England  divinity. 
He  was  a  master  in  the  construction  of  great 
sermons,  many  volumes  of  which  were  pub- 
lished, and  which  for  two  generations  had 


74    Eumanism  in  New  England  Theology 

an  extensive  circulation.  He  was  a  thinker, 
acute,  fearless,  formidable;  a  teacher  of  the- 
ology who  trained  and  sent  into  the  minis- 
try more  than  one  hundred  preachers;  a 
theist  whose  vision  of  God  carried  him  at 
times  into  pure  pantheism;  a  splendid  pa- 
triot and  a  great  man  whose  more  than 
ninety-five  years  of  existence  in  this  world 
is  a  tradition  of  many-sided  power,  of 
power,  too,  in  a  country  minister,  difficult 
to  match,  and  still  more  difficult  to  sur- 
pass, in  the  history  of  any  community.  For 
the  daring  mind  of  to-day  Emmons  has  a 
peculiar  fascination.  His  sermons  on  "Di- 
vine and  Human  Agency"  recall  Spinoza. 
His  terrible  sermon  on  "Reprobation"  dis- 
covers the  impossible  side  of  every  system 
of  pantheism.  In  this  and  in  other  sermons 
of  a  like  nature  Emmons  will  tolerate  no 
disguises.  He  is  absolutely  frank  and  fear- 
less. It  was,  indeed,  a  great  commimity  that 
could  accord  complete  freedom  to  the  man 
who  thus  turned  New  England  Calvinism 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    75 

into  pantheism.  Here  is  an  example  of  Em- 
mons's manner: 

Since  the  Scriptures  ascribe  all  the  actions  of 
men  to  God  as  well  as  to  themselves,  we  may 
justly  conclude  that  the  Divine  agency  is  as 
much  concerned  in  their  bad  as  in  their  good 
actions.  Men  are  no  more  capable  of  acting 
independently  in  the  one  instance  than  the 
other.  It  is  God  who  worketh  in  men,  both  to 
will  and  to  do  in  all  cases  without  exception. 
He  wrought  equally  in  the  minds  of  those  who 
sold  and  in  the  minds  of  those  who  bought 
Joseph.  He  wrought  as  effectually  in  the  minds 
of  Joseph's  brethren,  when  they  sold  him,  as 
when  they  repented  and  besought  his  mercy. 
He  not  only  prepared  these  persons  to  act,  but 
made  them  act. 

This  man  had  the  courage  of  his  convic- 
tions, and  from  him  we  learn  that  freedom 
in  New  England  Congregationalism  did  not 
begin  yesterday. 

Nathaniel  W.  Taylor  has  come  in  for  his 
full  share  of  criticism  in  this  discussion,  nor 
am  I  able  to  agree  with  Dr.  Foster  in  his 
estimate  of  the  importance  of  this  thinker. 


y6    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

It  would,  however,  be  a  manifest  injustice 
to  refuse  to  recognize  his  eminence.  It  is 
hardly  possible  to  read  his  work  on  "The 
Moral  Government  of  God"  without  ad- 
miration for  his  penetration,  his  method  of 
exposition,  his  logical  alertness  and  skill. 
Once  more  we  have  in  Taylor  the  example 
of  an  eminent  mind  lifted  into  great  effi- 
ciency through  severe  and  continued  disci- 
pline. Such  intellects  shed  upon  ordinary 
minds  something  of  their  own  grandeur; 
and  their  steadfast  diligence,  their  unslack- 
ening  and  arduous  toil  in  the  service  of  their 
cause,  is  a  tradition  that  wise  men  will  not 
willingly  let  die. 

In  Edwards  A.  Park,  whom  the  writer 
knew,  the  most  striking  characteristic  was 
the  native  force  of  his  intellect  and  the  de- 
gree of  brilliant  efficiency  to  which  it  had 
been  raised  by  prolonged  and  consummate 
discipline.  For  skill  and  power  in  deductive 
argument  Professor  Park  has  never  been 
surpassed  by  any  thinker  in  our  history.  If 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    77 

the  stuff  in  which  he  dealt  had  been  as  good 
as  the  manner  in  which  he  handled  it,  Park 
would  have  been  irresistible.  His  weakness 
was  that  of  his  school,  material  weakness; 
in  formal  skill,  finish,  and  power  he  stood  at 
the  head  of  his  school.  It  is,  indeed,  to  be 
regretted  that  the  memory  of  such  gifts  for 
logical  discussion  as  those  possessed  by  Pro- 
fessor Park,  gifts  that  resembled  immense 
logical  instincts  raised  by  long  and  energetic 
practice  into  marvelous  efficiency,  should 
become  dim.  Park's  excellence  here  was  a 
kind  of  object  lesson  in  the  intellectual 
world.  Through  this  excellence  he  became 
the  greatest  teacher  upon  serious  subjects 
that  the  country  has  ever  known,  and  the 
tradition  of  this  keen,  accomplished,  and 
powerful  mind  is  too  valuable  to  be  per- 
mitted without  protest  to  pass  into  oblivion. 
In  the  dauntless  intellectual  bearing  and 
militant  power  of  the  entire  New  England 
school  there  is  much  to  interest  and  instruct 
the  teacher  and  preacher  of  Christianity 


y8    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

to-day.  In  respect  of  intellectual  magnitude 
and  discipline,  we  may  well  say, 

"  We  are  scarce  our  father's  shadows  cast  at  noon." 

There  is  an  objective  survival  in  the  New 
England  system  that  as  a  system  has  per- 
ished. Certain  abiding  principles  are  con- 
cealed in  the  passing  forms  like  wheat  in  the 
chaff.  Criticism  here  is  a  process,  not  of 
extinction,  but  of  winnowing.  This  process 
leads  to  a  clearer  possession  of  the  substance 
of  faith  that  has  been  in  the  Christian 
Church  from  early  days,  and  that  will  re- 
main in  it  so  long  as  it  shall  have  a  gos- 
pel to  offer  to  mankind.  Sovereignty,  sin, 
judgment,  redemption,  and  the  everlasting 
worth  of  the  human  soul,  under  fresh  inter- 
pretation, and  with  richer  content,  are  to 
emerge  from  the  critical  process  as  the  new 
five  points  of  faith.  While  men  believe  in  the 
Infinite  mind,  while  they  believe  that  the 
Infinite  mind  is  Almighty  love,  they  must 
continue  to  believe  in  the  sovereignty  of 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    yg 

God.  Something  must  be  sovereign  in  this 
universe.  Is  it  blind  fate  or  intelligence, 
brute  power,  aimless,  unconscious,  or  spirit? 
These  are  the  alternatives,  and  while  Faith 
is  sane,  she  cannot  hesitate  in  the  choice  of 
her  ultimate  principle.  To  be  assured  that 
the  final  sovereignty  in  this  imiverse  is 
the  sovereignty  of  character,  righteous  and 
competent,  would  be  the  infinite  consola- 
tion; to  be  able  to  believe  in  this  sovereignty 
must  continue  to  be  the  supreme  privilege 
of  Christian  faith. 

Against  the  moral  idealism  of  the  world 
there  stands  forth  the  tremendous  fact  of 
sin.  Whether  traced  to  Adam  or  to  a  pre- 
human ancestor  in  no  way  alters  the  fact. 
The  ape  of  evolution  brings  into  human  his- 
tory the  same  problem  brought  by  the 
Adam  of  the  traditional  theology.  The  cry 
of  man  in  his  moral  pain  is  still.  Who  shall 
deliver  me  from  the  body  of  this  death?  The 
intellect  in  the  service  of  the  conscience  still 
presents  its  vision  of  the  good ;  the  intellect 


8o    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

in  the  service  of  the  animal  still  presents  its 
vision  of  apparent  good;  and  between  these 
visions  of  good  essential  and  good  apparent, 
the  soul  of  man  is  still  in  distress.  In  this 
sense  the  race  of  man  is  still  sold  under  sin. 
Moral  ignorance,  perversity,  misery,  con- 
tinue to  be  the  deepest  and  darkest  woes  in 
human  history.  The  only  adequate  name 
for  man's  world  is  tragedy.  The  theology 
that  would  save  itself  from  shallowness  and 
contempt  must  renew  its  vision  of  sin.  Old 
definitions  may  be  inadequate,  old  deriva- 
tions may  be  antiquated,  ancient  treatises 
on  original  sin  may  have  become  mere  black 
mythologies;  still,  between  the  soul  and  the 
eternal  good  stand  the  terrible  forms  of 
human  ignorance,  perversity,  weakness,  and 
woe.  Into  this  tragic  world  of  man  ancient 
thinkers  looked  with  profound  vision;  that 
vision  must  be  renewed  by  the  tliinkers  of 
this  modern  time  who  would  know  what 
man  is  and  what  he  needs  in  order  that  he 
may  become  what  it  is  in  him  to  be. 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    8i 

The  judgment  of  the  Eternal  God  is  es- 
sential to  a  living  and  militant  faith.  All 
kinds  of  behavior  cannot  be  equally  pleas- 
ing to  God,  if  He  is  a  being  of  moral  dis- 
crimination, nor  can  any  soul  fall  outside 
the  circle  of  his  judgment  if  every  soul  is  of 
infinite  consequence.  The  sense  of  the  judg- 
ment of  God  issues  in  two  feelings,  one  of 
awe  in  the  presence  of  the  final  test  of  char- 
acter, the  other  of  hope  that  the  soul  in  its 
evil  habit  should  be  of  concern  to  the  In- 
finite. Here  the  ideal  of  the  saint  is  renewed; 
here  the  hope  of  the  sinner  is  revived;  here 
in  both  saint  and  sinner  the  consciousness 
of  the  infinite  dignity  of  human  life  is 
wrought  into  new  intensity  and  majesty.  So 
long  as  men  beheve  that  the  world  is  under 
the  judgment  of  God,  so  long  will  awe  and 
hope,  and  the  sense  of  the  high  import  of 
man's  Hfe,  continue  in  the  earth.  If  faith 
would  be  permanent,  it  must  include  belief 
in  the  eternal  righteous  judgment  of  God. 

Redemption  is  a  word  for  which  we  in 


82    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

this  day  have  Uttle  fondness.  In  so  far  as 
this  means  a  revolt  from  ancient  ideas  about 
the  moral  distress  of  men,  it  is  justifiable;  in 
so  far  as  it  signifies  that  we  belong  to  the 
respectable  and  comfortable  class  in  society, 
secure  in  our  moral  conceit,  it  is  not  credit- 
able. Redemption  has  meant  deliverance, 
deliverance  of  man  from  his  distress  by  the 
Almighty  help  of  God;  and  in  Christianity 
it  has  signified  the  same  thing  through  the 
career  of  Jesus  Christ  and  his  servants.  If 
there  be  no  redemption,  there  can  be  in  our 
theology  no  principle  of  it.  If  there  be  no 
redemption,  the  world  still  waits  for  the 
advent  of  its  supreme  helper. 

Under  new  names  the  old  principle  of 
redemption  is  in  fact  more  widely  ac- 
cepted and  more  efficiently  used  to-day 
than  at  any  time  since  the  apostolic  age. 
Our  optimism  is  nothing  but  our  confidence 
in  the  coming  deliverance  of  man.  Our 
enthusiasm  for  education,  missions,  social 
service,  pure  politics,  good  government, 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    8j 

true  religion,  and  a  hundred  aspects  of  the 
Christian  ideal,  is  at  heart  a  new  confession 
of  confidence  in  the  great  idea  of  redemp- 
tion. We  are  seizing  an  old  idea,  delivering 
it  from  its  mythological  setting,  clearing  it 
of  its  aeonian  narrowness,  translating  it  into 
a  richer  and  vaster  conception,  and  making 
it  the  final  platform  upon  which  as  servants 
of  the  ideal  we  take  our  stand.  And  with 
these  four  beliefs  —  sovereignty,  sin,  judg- 
ment, redemption  —  there  goes  that  in  the 
permanence  of  the  human  soul.  This  behef 
is  to-day,  in  the  great  centers  of  intellectual 
life,  in  many  cases,  timid,  apologetic,  hypo- 
thetic. A  profounder  faith  in  God,  as  the 
infinite  lover  of  men  and  a  deeper  life  in 
his  love,  will  restore  this  great  belief.  It  is 
bound  up  with  the  consciousness  of  the 
moral  dignity  of  men;  while  that  lasts,  it 
cannot  perish;  when  that  waxes  in  vigor,  it 
will  return  in  power.  The  mystery  of  the 
enswathement  of  the  human  spirit  in  flesh 
is  great.  It  has  been  obvious  to  the  thinker 


84    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

since  thought  began.  It  has  been  dwelt  upon 
with  peculiar  intensity,  sometimes  with  ex- 
clusive attention,  during  the  last  two  gener- 
ations of  thinkers.  The  deeper  mystery  of 
the  enswathement  of  the  human  spirit  in 
God  has  faded  from  the  consciousness  of  the 
time.  It  is  this  mystery  that  contains  the 
key  to  the  other;  as  Emerson  sang: 

"  Lost  in  God,  in  Godhead  found!  " 

We  may  believe,  therefore,  that  the  New 
England  theology  will  have  this  reproduc- 
tion of  its  essential  ideas,  at  least  in  the  new 
evangelical  creed  of  the  future.  The  old  five 
points  of  the  Calvinistic  divinity  might  not 
be  able  to  recognize  the  image  of  themselves 
as  reproduced  in  the  new  five  points  of  the 
divinity  of  to-day;  but  it  is  not  seldom  thus 
in  the  preservation  of  continuity.  The  prin- 
ciple of  inheritance  is  often  obscured  in  that 
of  variation,  the  law  of  parenthood  is  fre- 
quently lost  in  the  advent  of  a  fresh  gift 
from  God.  It  may  prove  to  be  the  case  that 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    85 

the  traditional  theology  has,  in  a  general 
way,  set  a  type  from  which  the  Christian 
mind  as  a  whole  will  never  depart.  A  few 
remarks  concerning  the  possible  forms  of 
this  persisting  type  may  not  unfittingly 
close  this  discussion. 


IV 

YPES  of  thought  fundamental  in 
their  nature  endure.  The  Platonic 
type  of  idealism  endures,  the 
transcendental  type,  whether  Plato  is  re- 
garded as  an  adequate  master  of  it  or  not. 
The  Aristotelian  tjrpe  of  idealism  endures; 
the  immanental  type,  that  which  finds  in 
the  Eternal  the  force  that  gives  meaning 
and  character  to  the  world  of  fact,  whether 
the  method  and  conclusions  of  Aristotle  are 
or  are  not  looked  upon  as  acceptable.  Ma- 
teriahsm  has  many  forms,  but  the  type  en- 
dures. Mind  is  referred  to  that  which  is 
lower  than  itself;  the  highest  in  human  ex- 
perience is  under  the  ultimate  sovereignty 
of  that  which  is  lowest,  and  this  again  by  an 
abyss  out  beyond  the  individual  soul.  This 
is  the  essence  of  materialism,  and  this  way 
of  reading  the  meaning  of  existence  endures. 
Pure  phenomenalism  is  a  persistent  type, 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    87 

the  type  that  regards  our  human  world  as  a 
vagrant,  mean  or  mighty,  in  the  dark  im- 
mensities by  which  it  is  surrounded.  In  the 
sphere  of  ethics  we  have  epicureanism,  an- 
cient and  modern;  stoicism,  old  and  new; 
Hellenism,  with  its  matter  and  form  in  ideal 
synthesis;  Christianity,  with  its  temporal 
filled  with  the  eternal  spirit.  For  many  gen- 
erations, at  least,  there  will  continue  to  exist 
different  types  of  theological  thought.  These 
different  schools  of  thought  will  continue  to 
be  influenced  by  ideals  widely  unlike.  If  we 
should  say  that  the  common  ideal  of  the- 
ology is  to  give  to  the  reason  an  adequate 
account  of  the  religious  life  of  mankind, 
that  life  is  itself  smitten  with  multiplicity 
and  contrast.  For  critical  students  there 
must  be  some  one  religion  which  shall 
commend  itself  as  highest.  For  the  equal 
student  who  is  a  thinker  that  one  highest 
religion  will  issue  an  ideal  in  the  light  of 
which  he  will  build  his  philosophy  of  the 
spiritual  life  of  mankind.  For  a  long  time, 


88    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

in  the  sphere  of  the  philosophy  of  religion, 
as  in  other  departments  of  the  philosophy 
of  human  existence,  we  must  endure  multi- 
plicity and  contrast;  we  must  seek  to  learn 
from  them,  and  through  this  wider  mutual 
imderstanding  do  something  to  bring  on 
the  day  of  ultimate  simplicity  and  unity  in 
the  religious  vision  of  the  world. 

Every  form  of  theism  is  founded  upon  a 
humanistic  interpretation  of  the  universe. 
The  human  mind  finds  itself  plus  infinity  in 
the  universe.  Matter  is  reduced  to  force,  the 
ordered  force  is  reduced  to  mind,  the  mind 
is  the  supreme  spirit.  Thus  the  cosmos 
melts,  before  the  ardor  of  the  theistic  mood, 
into  mind.  And  the  same  process  takes 
place  in  the  consideration  of  our  human 
world,  with  a  result  infinitely  richer.  Intel- 
lect and  character  in  man,  moral  experience 
in  the  societies  of  men,  the  moral  order  in 
the  life  of  nations  and  races,  the  moral 
world  in  the  history  of  mankind,  terminate 
in  the  mind  and  conscience  of  the  moral 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    8q 

Deity.  In  every  case,  therefore,  whether 
justij&able  or  not  is  not  now  the  question, 
theism  is  the  interpretation  of  the  universe 
in  accordance  with  the  principle  of  human 
personality.  Theism  is  essentially  and  eter- 
nally humanism. 

Varieties  of  this  theistic  humanism  will 
continue  to  exist.  The  varieties  will  be  of 
two  kinds;  those  resulting  from  fundamen- 
tal differences  in  method,  and  those  result- 
ing from  different  estimates  of  the  historic 
expressions  of  the  religious  spirit.  The  New 
England  divinity  is  at  heart  a  variety  of 
humanism.  As  a  type  it  will  endure;  as  a 
system  of  opinion,  expressive  of  that  t>^e, 
it  has  passed  away.  From  the  new  outlook 
which  we  have  now  attained,  we  see  new 
reasons  for  this  result.  The  humanism  of 
the  New  England  divinity  had  two  fatal 
defects  —  one  intellectual,  the  other  moral. 
It  used  as  its  guiding  principle  governmen- 
tal analogies;  it  lived  and  moved  and  had  its 
being  in  civic  relations;  it  read  the  character 


go    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

of  the  Supreme  Mind  through  these  rela- 
tions, with  the  inevitable  result  that  God 
was  for  it  a  King,  a  moral  Governor,  and 
men  were  subjects  under  this  King  and 
Governor.  This  was  the  intellectual  defect 
of  the  humanism.  It  was  in  no  sense  Chris- 
tian in  its  humanistic  principle.  Jesus  says, 
"Our  Father  who  art  in  heaven";  He  adds, 
"Thy  kingdom  come";  but  the  Divine 
Fatherhood  is  primary.  The  parental  and 
filial  relation  in  human  Hfe  is  for  Jesus  the 
supreme  principle  in  the  reading  of  the 
character  of  God.  Jesus  speaks  of  his  Fath- 
er's house.  Here  again  the  human  home  is 
used  as  the  institution  through  which  the 
eternal  life  in  God  is  to  be  apprehended. 
The  humanism  of  Jesus  is  parental  and 
filial;  it  is  essential  and  everlasting  human- 
ism. The  humanism  of  the  New  England 
divinity  is  external,  subordinate,  temporal. 
This  structural  defect  runs  through  the 
entire  system;  from  the  first  under  this 
defect  the  system  was  doomed. 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    gt 

The  moral  defect  of  the  New  England 
humanism  lies  in  the  terrible  negative 
which  it  carries  in  its  heart.  God  creates  all; 
puts  all  in  a  world  in  which  all  will  surely 
fall  into  sin;  so  regards  sin  that  the  sinner 
is  doomed  to  eternal  misery;  and  yet  this 
same  God  elects  to  salvation  and  provides 
for  the  salvation  of  a  part  only  of  this  lost 
race.  Humanism  here  falls  beneath  the  dig- 
nity of  a  good  man.  It  justifies  the  retort  of 
Father  Taylor,  the  sailor  preacher  of  Bos- 
ton, to  the  Calvinistic  preacher,  "Your  God 
stands  for  my  devil.''  In  such  a  conception 
of  God  there  is  no  hint  of  Christianity;  in  at- 
taining this  conception  of  God  the  kind  of 
humanism  employed  is  surely  not  that 
found  in  the  prayer  of  Jesus  on  the  Cross, 
"Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not 
what  they  do."  The  New  England  divinity 
has  perished,  therefore,  because  it  was  a 
form  of  humanism  wanting  in  depth  and 
wanting  in  worth. 

Still,  the  type  of  humanism  which  the 


g2    Humanism  in  New  England  TJieology 

system  served  while  it  lived,  endures,  and 
is  bound  to  endure.  That  type  sets  a  high 
value  upon  certain  kinds  of  spiritual  experi- 
ence; it  also  attempts  to  read  the  character 
of  the  Eternal,  not  through  man  the  indi- 
vidual, but  through  man  the  social  being; 
in  other  words,  it  is  evangelical  in  its  reli- 
gious feeling  and  Trinitarian  in  its  vision  of 
God. 

This  type  of  humanism  looks  upon  our 
world  under  the  form  of  tragedy.  Between 
good  apparent  and  good  essential  the 
world  is  still  in  a  profound  sense  a  lost 
world;  that  is,  it  is  lost  to  the  Divine  end 
and  use  of  existence,  and  it  is  a  world  in 
which  misery  natural  and  moral  abounds. 
The  experience  of  Paul,  when  he  cried,  "0 
wretched  man  that  I  am,  who  shall  deliver 
me  from  the  body  of  this  death";  of  Augus- 
tine in  his  bitter  struggle  against  a  sensual 
habit;  of  Luther  in  his  horror  in  the  presence 
of  an  apparently  impossible  moral  ideal  — 
is  in  less  emphatic  forms  and  in  a  general 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    pj 

way  the  experience  of  awakened  men  in  a 
Christian  community.  The  great  need  is 
moral  deliverance,  moral  hope  and  peace. 
When  men  are  delivered  from  this  woe  they 
naturally  become,  to  their  fellow  men  still 
in  distress,  apostles,  missionaries,  preachers, 
and  servants  of  the  gospel  of  deliverance. 
The  center  of  the  world  is  tragedy,  and  the 
new  insights  and  the  emancipations  from 
old  ideas  are  built  round  this  center.  The 
new  vision  of  truth  to  which  the  descend- 
ants of  the  old  creed  have  come  may  be  the 
common  heritage  of  the  enlightened  reli- 
gious spirit;  yet  in  their  case  a  certain  fer- 
vor, a  unique  feeling,  a  passion  as  of  one 
living  in  a  world  of  tragedy,  pervades  the 
vision  and  flushes  its  calm  features  into 
solemnity  and  hope. 

I  have  said  this  feeling  is  evangelical;  that 
is,  it  is  formed  with  reference  to  the  message 
and  person  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  occupies  the 
center  of  the  historic  field.  Theo-centric  in 
conclusion,  this  feeling  under  reflection  is 


g4    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

Christo-centric  in  its  method  of  interpreta- 
tion; the  attachment  to  the  person  of  Jesus 
as  the  bearer  and  doer  of  the  Eternal  gospel 
is  ardent  and  profound.  He  is  the  way  over 
which  the  seeking  God  and  the  seeking  soul 
alike  go,  in  the  highest  religious  commimity; 
the  way  in  which  the  seekers  meet.  The  feel- 
ing for  Jesus  on  the  part  of  his  first  disciples 
is  a  continuous  feeUng;  the  definitions  ac- 
companying the  feeling  may  change  while 
the  feeling  endures.  This  profound  feeling 
for  Jesus  is  the  emotional  side  of  the  type 
of  faith,  served,  while  it  lived,  by  the  New 
England  divinity.  Jesus  was  God's  way 
toward  man;  He  was  man's  way  toward 
God;  and  thus  there  sprung  up  in  the  heart 
the  feeling  of  the  indispensableness  of  the 
Lord.  This  sense  of  his  indispensableness 
issued  in  a  unique  state  of  the  heart  toward 
Him;  and  this  state  of  the  heart  toward  the 
indispensable  Master  is  not  weaker,  but 
stronger,  in  the  free  descendants  of  the  New 
England  divines. 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    p5 

We  turn  now  from  the  emotional  aspect 
of  the  type  to  its  philosophical  principle. 
Here,  for  the  sake  of  clearness,  it  must  be 
said  that  there  is  but  one  mood  toward  the 
universe  that  is  non-humanistic.  That  mood 
is  the  agnostic  mood.  It  sees  that  man  must 
use  his  own  nature  in  the  interpretation  of 
the  ultimate  reality  if  he  is  to  attain  an 
interpretation  of  it,  and  this  the  agnostic 
spirit  refuses  to  do.  Every  positive  view  of 
the  universe  is  attained  under  the  guidance 
of  some  aspect  of  the  personality  of  man 
used  as  the  principle  of  interpretation.  Ma- 
terialism, whether  crass  or  refined,  is  finally 
the  construction  of  a  theory  of  the  universe 
through  the  medium  of  the  bodily  Hfe;  the 
philosophy  that  sums  up  the  character  of 
the  Infinite  as  imconscious  force  uses  as 
interpreter  one  phase  of  the  human  per- 
sonality—  will  —  abstracted  from  intelli- 
gence. Theism  reduces  itself  to  two  forms; 
the  interpretation  of  God  through  man  the 
individual,  and  the  apprehension  of  God 


g6    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

through  man  the  social  being.  The  world 
of  facts  lies  open  to  the  scientific  investiga- 
tor; the  world  of  religious  feeling  and  char- 
acter Hes  before  the  student  of  religion;  the 
world  of  spiritual  reaHty  in  Christianity  is 
in  the  vision  of  the  competent  inquirer  upon 
this  branch  of  history.  In  each  case  facts 
have  a  determining  influence  in  the  selec- 
tion of  the  special  phase  of  the  human  per- 
sonality to  be  employed  as  the  principle 
of  interpretation.  Certain  facts,  such  as 
the  apparent  sovereignty  of  the  lower 
forces  over  the  higher,  appeal  to  the  ma- 
teriahst;  other  facts,  such  as  the  seeming 
blind  might  and  majesty  of  the  cosmos  and 
our  human  world,  control  the  mind  of  the 
fatalist;  other  facts  still,  such  as  the  indis- 
putable evidence  of  purpose  in  the  universe, 
compel  the  mind  of  the  theist;  and  once 
again,  there  are  orders  of  fact  that  incline 
the  theist  now  toward  Deism  and  then 
toward  Trinitarianism.  But  the  facts  are 
impotent  without  the  guiding  principle;  in 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    gy 

every  case  that  is  borrowed  from  the  human 
personality.  I  repeat,  therefore,  that  every 
form  of  theism  is  a  form  of  humanism.  The 
collapse  of  the  New  England  divinity  has 
left  in  power  to  the  future  the  type  of  the- 
ism known  as  the  Trinitarian  type. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  the  form  of  the- 
ism most  popular  to-day  in  all  the  churches 
is  that  gained  through  the  use  of  man  the 
individual.  Preachers  in  all  communions 
have  in  large  numbers  turned  from  Trini- 
tarianism.  It  is  not  publicly  denied  or  dis- 
carded; it  is  secretly  confessed  to  have  be- 
come no  part  of  the  working  philosophy  of 
religion.  This  mood  will  doubtless  continue 
to  prevail  to  some  extent  in  all  the  churches. 
For  certain  minds  the  interpretation  of  the 
universe  through  man  the  individual  is  su- 
premely attractive,  because  of  its  appar- 
ent simplicity,  straightforwardness,  freedom 
from  contradiction,  and  from  the  heavy, 
although  at  times  transfigured  fogs,  that 
forever  lie  on  the  seas  of  mysticism.  Whaft 


p5    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

is  known  as  Arianism,  and  again  what  is 
known  as  Unitarianism,  sets  a  distinct  and 
persistent  type  of  theism.  It  is  well  to  recog- 
nize its  principle  of  interpretation,  its  philo- 
sophical method,  and  its  enduring  fascina- 
tions for  certain  orders  of  mind.  It  is  well  to 
confess  that  it  is  one  of  two  rival  tj^es  of 
Christian  theism,  and  that  to-day  it  is  win- 
ning increasing  confidence  and  support.  It 
should  be  added  that  this  type  of  theism 
holds,  inconsistently  as  it  seems  to  me,  that 
its  God  is  love  in  his  inmost  essence,  that  it 
carries  over  into  its  Deity  pretty  much  the 
same  moral  content  that  one  finds  in  its 
great  rival  tyi^.  In  my  judgment  this 
moral  content  does  not  belong  to  it,  nor  do 
I  think  it  will  remain  permanently  with  the 
type,  if  it  shall  continue  unchanged;  but  as 
matter  of  fact  this  moral  richness  is  now 
there. 

The  t5^e  of  theism  inherited  from  the 
New  England  divinity  is  the  Trinitarian 
type.  It  has  not  perished,  as  is  sometimes 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    gg 

rashly  imagined,  in  the  passing  of  that  sys- 
tem. It  is  imperishable  because  it  is  founded 
upon  the  richest  and  worthiest  form  of  hu- 
manism. It  is  useless  to  say  that  the  Trinity 
was  invented  to  make  room  in  the  Godhead 
for  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  of 
whom  He  spoke.  Perhaps  this  may  be  the 
literal  truth;  that  it  is  not  the  essential 
truth  I  am  persuaded.  Even  on  the  surface 
of  the  history  it  is  plain  that,  while  the  new 
doctrine  of  God  may  have  been  mainly 
suggested  by  the  supreme  career  in  the 
Gospels,  that  doctrine  is  logically  prior  to 
Christianity,  logically  prior  to  historic  hu- 
manity. Besides,  no  ancient  theologian  of 
the  first  rank  makes  room  in  the  Godhead 
for  Jesus;  he  simply  discerns  a  unique  as- 
sociation between  Jesus  and  one  phase  of 
the  Godhead  —  the  Eternal  Son,  between 
whom  and  all  men,  because  they  are  men, 
there  is  an  intimate  and  abiding  association. 
In  recent  centuries  there  is  a  cloud  of  confu- 
sion resting  upon  the  doctrine  of  God  and 


100    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

the  doctrine  of  Jesus  Christ.  Into  this  fog- 
bank  I  have  sailed  elsewhere,  and  I  have  no 
time  for  another  excursion  now. 

What  we  are  concerned  with  here  is 
not  primarily  historic  situations,  but  philo- 
sophical principles.  The  reasons  why  the 
Trinity  has  been  abandoned  so  largely  in  all 
commimions  of  Christian  faith  are  mainly 
two:  superficiahty  in  thought,  and  inability 
to  grasp  the  principle  at  work  in  the  entire 
history  of  Trinitarianism.  Perhaps  the  two 
reasons  should  be  reduced  to  one.  If  Trini- 
tarianism were  seen  to  be  —  what  it  un- 
questionably is  —  the  result,  in  theistic  be- 
lief, of  the  use  of  man  the  social  being  as 
the  guide  to  the  being  of  God,  it  could  not 
appear  to  be  the  sanctified  nonsense  which 
it  undoubtedly  seems  to  be  to  many  men 
to-day.  Man  by  himself  is  no  man.  The  in- 
dividual is  neither  parent,  nor  child,  nor 
lover,  nor  friend.  The  individual  man  is  no 
man.  Social  man  is  the  being  we  know,  and 
social  man,  with  his  dower  of  love  and  his 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    loi 

burning  moral  idealism,  is  the  being  whose 
gromid  we  seek  in  the  Eternal.  If  the  Eter- 
nal is  a  bare  individual,  it  is  an  impenetrable 
mystery  how  He  can  be  a  moral  being;  and 
we  are  inclined  to  conclude  with  Aristotle, 
that  morality,  except  in  the  form  of  intel- 
lectual integrity,  is  foreign  to  the  nature  of 
God.  If  the  Eternal  is  a  pure  everlasting 
egoist,  again  it  passes  understanding  how 
He  can  be  represented  in  an  altruistic  hu- 
manity. That  the  Deity  has  the  power  to 
create  forms  of  life  dijfferent  from  his  own, 
the  world  of  Hfe  may  be  held  to  prove.  Still, 
in  every  case  there  is  fundamental  identity. 
The  link  between  the  nature  of  God  and  the 
world  of  matter  is  force;  force  being  un- 
meaning save  as  a  phase  of  will.  The  infinite 
variety  in  the  forms  of  life  are  again  one 
with  God,  in  that  he  is  the  living  God. 
When  we  come  to  man  we  have  a  being 
whose  essential  nature  is  love.  If  God  does 
not  answer  to  man  here.  He  falls  below  the 
work  of  his  hands.  But  love,  so  far  as  we 


102    Humanism  in  New  England  Theology 

can  see,  is  impossible  except  in  a  social  be- 
ing; if  therefore  God  is  lover  in  some  mystic 
way,  He  must  be  social.  The  question  is 
how  to  evolve  from  an  egoistic  Deity  an 
altruistic  humanity.  To  answer  this  ques- 
tion of  the  evolution  of  humanity  is  one 
of  the  fxmdamental  problems  of  theism;  it 
would  seem  to  be  a  desperate  problem  for 
Deistic  theism. 

I  am  here  simply  stating  a  principle  of 
faith;  I  am  not  arguing  now  for  the  truth  of 
a  doctrine.  The  point  is  that  the  Trinitarian 
t)rpe  of  theism  has  survived  the  collapse  of 
the  old  divinity;  it  will  continue  to  survive 
because  it  is  founded  on  a  distinctive  con- 
ception of  man  employed  as  a  guide  to  the 
being  of  God.  And  it  should  be  said,  in  sim- 
ple justice  to  this  type,  and  all  the  more 
because  its  friends  seem  to  be  few,  and  these 
few  appear  to  sit  most  of  the  time  imder  the 
shadow  of  fear,  that  the  less  we  think  of 
man  the  mere  individual,  the  less  disposed 
shall  we  be  to  rest  in  the  form  of  theism  to 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    103 

which  it  leads;  that  the  more  we  regard  man 
as  essentially  a  social  being,  the  more  in- 
clined shall  we  be  to  trust  the  form  of 
theism  toward  which  it  points. 

The  high  contention,  therefore,  between 
the  Unitarian  and  Trinitarian  types  of  the- 
ism is  not  ended.  It  is  only  at  its  clear  be- 
ginning. So  far  as  it  has  been  a  contention 
in  enmity,  it  has  had  its  dismal  day.  The 
sooner  this  phase  of  the  debate  is  utterly 
transcended,  the  better  it  will  be  for  the 
cause  of  truth  and  character.  A  nobler  de- 
bate now  opens,  a  debate  without  which  the 
intellect  loses  half  its  vigilance  and  vigor, 
the  struggle  in  equal  honor  and  utter  free- 
dom between  the  two  t3^es  of  theism.  In 
this  invigorating  and  honorable  contest  the 
writer  stands  in  the  line  of  descent  from  the 
New  England  divines.  His  theism  is  social 
theism;  he  is  an  out-and-out  Trinitarian;  at 
the  same  time  he  is  moved  to  confess  that 
he  does  not  find  himself  in  a  multitude  that 
no  man  can  number. 


104    Bumanism  in  New  England  Theology 

Humanism  as  a  philosophical  principle 
covers  both  varieties  of  theism,  and  theism 
is  after  all  the  sovereign  interest  of  religion. 
That  theism  is  at  heart  humanism  may  be 
said  to  be  a  new  insight.  That  it  is  not  ab- 
solutely new  the  famous  remark  of  Xeno- 
crates,  about  the  way  in  which  animals 
would  construe  the  universe  if  they  were  in 
a  position  to  construe  it,  clearly  shows.  Still 
this  form  of  thought,  in  its  complete  self- 
consciousness,  is  essentially  new.  When  we 
construe  the  Eternal  by  the  human  we  take 
the  risk  of  faith.  We  may  be  mistaken,  yet 
our  mistake  is  a  tribute  to  the  Eternal.  We 
judge  Him  by  our  best,  and  add  thereto 
infinity.  Humanism  is  our  greatest  word 
because  it  covers  the  greatest  fact  that 
we  know  —  the  phenomenal  world  of  man. 
This  phenomenal  world  is  our  surest  path 
to  the  Eternal.  We  have  no  means  of  getting 
at  what  is  except  through  what  appears; 
and  the  highest  appearance  is  the  highest 
revelation  of  the  hidden  reality.  Contempt 


Humanism  in  New  England  Theology    105 

for  man's  world  is  contempt  for  the  world  of 
the  highest  man,  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and 
contempt  for  his  world  is  contempt  for  the 
Eternal,  if  the  Eternal  has  equal  worth.  The 
phenomenal  world  is  all  that  we  have;  nor 
is  it  a  world  isolated,  vagrant,  desolate.  The 
Eternal  is  its  refuge,  and  underneath  it  are 
the  everlasting  arms. 


THE  END 


CAMBRIDGB  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
U   .   5   .  A 


DATE  DUE 

ii^smm 

y 

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HIGHSMITH     #LO-45220 

